Moutai and Guizhou Sauce Aroma Tradition (茅台与酱香型传统)
Maotai Town, Guizhou Province
Kweichow Moutai is China's national spirit and the most valuable spirits company in the world by market capitalisation. The sauce aroma (jiang xiang) technique uses sorghum, wheat qu, and fermentation in stone pits, with seven distillation cycles over one year, followed by minimum 3 years aging in ceramic jars. The flavour compounds develop through the multiple distillation cycles — each creates a different fraction blended into the final product. Moutai produces over 1000 identified flavour compounds.