Kweichow Moutai: China's National Spirit, and What Sauce Aroma Means

Baijiu is the most consumed spirit category on earth by volume, and most people outside China have never had a glass of it. Moutai is the bottle to start with, and it is also the hardest one to start with.

Where It Comes From

Kweichow Moutai is made in the town of Maotai, in Guizhou Province, southwestern China.

The raw materials are local red sorghum and a wheat-based fermentation starter called qu, with water from the Chishui River. The methods have been refined over more than two centuries.

It is commonly described as China's national liquor and it has long been the spirit poured at state banquets and diplomatic occasions. That status is not marketing; it is a matter of documented practice.

Qu, and Why Baijiu Is Not Like Anything Else

Every distilled spirit needs a way to turn starch into sugar. Whisky uses malted barley. Sake and shochu use koji mold. Baijiu uses qu.

Qu is a brick of crushed grain, usually wheat, packed and left in a warm room to be colonized by whatever molds, yeasts and bacteria are living in the building. It is not a single cultured organism. It is an entire microbial community, and it varies by producer and by region.

Then comes the part that has no equivalent anywhere else. The fermentation is solid state. There is no liquid mash. Sorghum, qu and steamed grain are mixed and buried in stone or earthen pits, where fermentation happens in what is essentially damp solid material. The pits themselves accumulate microbial populations over decades, and an old pit is considered a genuine asset.

Sauce Aroma

Baijiu is classified by aroma category, and Moutai is the defining example of jiangxiang, sauce aroma, named because it smells like fermented soybean paste.

That description is accurate and it is also why the category is difficult for newcomers. The nose is savory, nutty, umami-rich, and to an unprepared Western palate it can read closer to soy sauce or mushroom than to anything expected from a spirit.

Moutai's technicians recognize more than three hundred distinct aromas in it. Whether or not you can find three hundred, the point stands: this is not a simple drink, and the complexity is on the savory axis rather than the sweet one.

It is bottled at 53% ABV.

How to Drink It

Neat, at room temperature, in a very small glass. Baijiu is traditionally drunk in small tasting cups, in toasts, alongside food, not sipped alone over an hour.

Do not chill it, and do not mix it the first time. Cold suppresses exactly the savory aromatics that are the point.

If the first sip is startling, that is normal. Take a second one. Most people's reaction changes considerably between the first and third.

Pair It With

Rich and savory food, which is how it is drunk in China. Fatty toro, wagyu skewers, anything with real umami. Baijiu and food are not separate activities.

Try It at Juraku

Kweichow Moutai is on the bar at Izakaya Juraku, Lower East Side. Ask us about it.