What are the brewing raw materials of Kweichow Moutai?

Local high-quality waxy sorghum, wheat and water.

Moutai is one of the three largest distilled spirits in the world, and it is known as the national wine, enjoying a high reputation at home and abroad. It is produced in Maotai Town, Guizhou, China. Using local high-quality waxy sorghum, wheat and water as raw materials, it is carefully made by using unique natural environment and scientific traditional technology, without adding any aroma or aromatic substances. It has been more than five years since production, storage and delivery.

It has the characteristics of outstanding sauce flavor, elegance and delicacy, mellow wine body, long aftertaste and lasting fragrance.

Maotai takes high-quality sorghum and wheat as raw materials, and uses more koji than raw materials.

Unique techniques, such as using more koji, long fermentation period, multiple fermentations and taking wine for many times, are the important reasons for the unique style and excellent quality of Moutai.

Maotai liquor is made by adding raw sand twice, fermenting eight times and distilling nine times. The production cycle is as long as eight or nine months, and after more than three years of aging, blending and storage for another year, the quality of liquor is more harmonious, mellow and soft, and it can be bottled before leaving the factory. The whole production process lasted nearly five years.

Unique red tassel sorghum, the sorghum used in Moutai production is waxy sorghum, commonly known locally as red tassel sorghum, with solid, full and uniform grains, small skin thickness, amylopectin content of more than 88%, and its cross section is glassy, which is very beneficial to the repeated baking of Moutai technology, so that the nutritional consumption of Maotai liquor in each round has a reasonable range.

Sorghum used for Moutai has a thick skin and is rich in 2%-2.5% tannin. Precursors such as catechuic acid, vanillin and ferulic acid are formed in the fermentation process, and finally the unique aromatic compounds and polyphenols of Moutai are formed.

The formation of these organic compounds is closely related to the sorghum and regional microbial flora of Moutai, and is also an important factor for the elegance, delicacy, mellow and long aftertaste of Moutai.