How to build a world wine producing area?

Shaoxing is known as the hometown of Huangjiu. The city has a history of more than 7000 years of wine making. And Huangjiu is recorded officially 2500 years ago. On June 30th, Shaoxing held a forum on revitalizing the development of Huangjiu industry. Song Shuyu, the vice president of China Wine Association, was invited and he made a speech named "Advantages and Opportunities for Shaoxing to Build a World Wine Producing Area". During the forum, I had the honor to interview Mr. song. And he said that Shaoxing has unique advantages to be an important part of the world wine producing areas.

Mr. Song Shuyu is an expert enjoying the special subsidies of the State Council, a Chinese wine master, and the deputy director of the liquor technical committee and standardization technical committee. Although he is a liquor expert, he is also a Huangjiu lover. And he said that Huangjiu is the oldest wine in the world. Jiang Tong of the Jin Dynasty said in A Written Admonition of Wine that the Rice Wine was invented by the King or Yi Di, or Du Kang. When there was some rice left over, people threw it into an empty area with mulberry trees. After a few days of natural fermentation, the rice smelled fragrant and had the flavor of wine. Therefore, the surplus grain is the prerequisite of wine making.

Mr. Song Shuyu said that Huangjiu is the best fermented wine because it is naturally brewed with the most complex technology and owns the richest flavor and active substances. And Huangjiu is the best Aged Wine in fermented wine. Huangjiu is born with active substances and the flavor of Huangjiu will be richer as the years roll on. In addition, Huangjiu is the best and only distilled wine in fermented wine, including Han Jiu and Zaoshao Jiu. What`s more, Huangjiu is the wine with the longest history, deepest culture meanings, and the most wonderful stories.

Then, Mr. Song listed brands and producing areas of the world famous wines, including Chinese liquor (Maotai, Wuliangye, Fenjiu), French wine (Burgundy), British Whisky (Scotland), Japanese sake, Swedish vodka, German beer, Greek anisette, Mexican tequila, French champagne, Italian red wine and Chinese Huangjiu. The world famous wines generally own several major characteristics. Firstly, they have long history and deep culture meanings. Typical examples include French wine, Scotch whisky, Chinese Huangjiu and Chinese liquor. Secondly, the drinking mode and scene are unique. The personality of fine wine can only be demonstrated in the unique drinking scene and ceremony. Thirdly, they have wonderful stories. Typical examples include occasionally obtained cognac, elaborate Nv Er Hong Jiu and Zhuang Yuan Hong Jiu.

Mr. Song Shuyu said that Shaoxing has a long history of wine making and profound wine culture. The city should be an important part of the fine wine world. Shaoxing, located in the north central part of Zhejiang Province and the south bank of Hangzhou Bay, is a cultural and eco-tourism city with the characteristics of water towns in regions south of the Yangtze River. In addition, Shaoxing is an important city of the Yangtze River Delta city group. The city, which belongs to the subtropical monsoon climate belt, is warm and humid, and has four distinct seasons. Shaoxing, with a history of more than 2500 years, is one of the Chinese first historical and cultural cities, a city awarded with the UN Habitat Award, an excellent tourist city in China, a national forest city, the city with the most dynamic private economy, a famous water town, a bridge town, a wine town, a calligraphy town, and a scholars town. There are anecdotes of famous persons, wine stories, beautiful production areas, traditional wine making technology and delicious Huangjiu in Shaoxing.

Huangjiu is an important part of Chinese excellent traditional culture and traditional brewing food is the treasure of Chinese excellent traditional culture. Shaoxing has a history of more than 7000 years of Huangjiu making and Huangjiu has been produced in large quantities as early as the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties. The long history breeds the profound culture. Huangjiu is undoubtedly the symbol of Chinese culture, and has a great influence around the world, especially in Japan and Southeast Asia.

How to revitalize Shaoxing Huangjiu? Mr. Song Shuyu said that three major issues must be considered. Firstly, we should recognize the changes in the consumer market. The consumption is upgrading. Good life needs good wine. We don`t lack wine, but we lack good wine over a long period of time. In addition, the consumption of alcohol is diversified, personalized, rational and international. What`s more, some consumers buy Huangjiu for collection or for new experience and some consumers enjoy buying Huangjiu in new scenes.

Secondly, we should manifest new quality value of Huangjiu. Manifesting the quality of Huangjiu by a wine tasting is outdated. We should devote our mind to make high-quality wine. How to make high-quality wine? The key is keeping innovation, using materials regardless of costs, and paying less attention to time costs. In addition, we should manifest the production area, the winery and the product standard. Only by accurately expressing quality and value can we win the market. What`s more, we should deepen reasons for drinking Huangjiu. Is Huangjiu the best drink to accompany a meal? Can drinking Huangjiu make life slow and comfortable? Can Huangjiu manifest quality and art?

Thirdly, we should seize the opportunity to innovate and develop Huangjiu industry. The mature consumers are the core users of the communication platform in the personal consumption era. The platform data confirms that the alcohol consumers prefer videos, especially short videos.

How to innovate and develop? Mr. Song Shuyu said that the first point is to keep integrity. We should know the purposes of brewing and the target consumers. Winemakers of famous wine have their own brewing reasons and original intentions. The material wealth and spiritual wealth accumulated by continuous brewing forms the brewing technology, drinking etiquette, wine stories and wine art. In order to meet the material and spiritual needs of consumers, it is necessary for us to brew safe and high-quality Huangjiu and practice social responsibility.

The second point is to innovate the standard. Taking the revision of GBT 17204 as an opportunity to manifest Huangjiu in an international way. [" should be translated as [Huangjiu", not [rice wine". The standard was revised in 2018 and it is the highest standard of the whole wine industry. The revision involves all kinds of wine, and it will also affect the standards of all kinds of wine. The technology and product standards of Huangjiu should be expressed in a more accurate way. In addition, traditional and innovative products also should be expressed in a more accurate way.

The third point is to innovate the technology. In recent years, under the leadership of Professor Mao Jian of Jiangnan University, there were a lot of remarkable technological achievements in the research of flavor substances and health active substances, the research of intelligent brewing and other relevant researches. At the same time, there are breakthroughs in the research of micro ecology of brewing, ecology of production area, raw materials of brewing, detection technology, comprehensive utilization of brewing by-products, functional microorganisms and other topics.

Therefore, it should be clearly proposed that the flavor of Chinese Huangjiu is complex. The health value of Chinese Huangjiu lies in the complex composition of multiple active substances. The emphasis should be on analyzing the relationship between the complex composition of multiple flavor substances and the raw materials, ecology and microecology of brewing, so as to produce the wine with the unique personality style. As for the health value of Huangjiu, the emphasis should be on analyzing the health value of the complex composition of multiple flavor substances which are derived from natural fermentation. In addition, we should pay attention to analyzing the comfort of drinking.

The fourth point is to improve the value of Shaoxing Huangjiu production area.

1. Cultivation and construction of the production area

The government, the famous wine enterprises and the trade associations are all essential in the cultivation and construction of the production area.

At present, there are three modes (led by enterprises, led by the government, and led by the government, enterprises and associations) in the industry cultivation.

Enterprises should continue to develop the brand of famous wine and play a leading and exemplary role in the ecology, technology, scientific research and culture construction of the production area.

The government should play a role in the production area planning, ecological protection, resource allocation, construction of laws and regulations, cultural construction, industrial chain construction and other relevant aspects.

And associations should play an active role in the strategic development of the production area, the standard system construction of the production area, the cultivation of the scientific research platform and talents, the promotion of the brand of the production area, the certification of the production area and other relevant aspects.

2. Cultivation and construction of the brand

After long-term cultivation and construction, the famous wine brand of the production area has been influential. However, the brand of the production area is barely in embryo. At present, there are many small enterprises and brands in the production area, and their growth pressure is self-evident. The brand value of the production area cannot keep pace with the brand value of famous wine of the production area. At the same time, the government should pay more attention to regulating the unfair competition (tax) between small enterprises and famous wine enterprises in the production area, such as tying up the brand of large enterprises, infringing on intellectual property rights, and imitating and forging products of large enterprises. Otherwise, a solid dyke can collapse because of an ant hole in it. In addition, the government should improve the brand value of the production area and innovate the development mode to point out the development direction for small enterprises. The winery mode (famous wine brand + winery) advocated by China Wine Association is the best mode. Winery is the most effective way to manifest the quality and value of the production area. The winery group can make the production area layout reasonable, improve ecological protection, and enhance the brand of the production area.

The promotion of the production area brand can directly improve the product value and economic benefit, converge superior resources (talents, capital, market), promote related industries, improve resource supply, and form the industrial chain.

3. Ecology of the production area and industrial structure

There is a close relationship between natural ecology and industrial production capacity. And there should be a reasonable structure between the ecological capacity and production capacity (water, soil, grain, micro ecological environment, discharge). There is overcapacity in some production areas, which poses a great threat to the natural ecology and micro ecology. There are a large number of small workshops in these production areas and ecological natural resources are utilized excessively. Thus, we should establish the industrial capacity and ecological environment protection mechanism through demonstration, allocate resources reasonably (raw and auxiliary materials, water, soil and grain), supply power and control the discharge. In addition, we should research and improve the comprehensive utilization of Huangjiu fermentation by-products, enhance the added value of fermentation by-products, treat the by-products in a harmless way, form a circular economic structure, and promote ecological protection. We will unswervingly establish an industrial cluster centered on famous wine enterprises, rationally arrange the industrial structure, and achieve coordinated development among large, medium and small enterprises.

4. Industrial chain construction

Combination of planting and brewing, combination of wine and tourism, combination of wine and culture and combination of wine and nutrition

Good wine is produced by fine brewing, aging, mixing and planting. Huangjiu industry is related with primary, secondary and tertiary industries. The upstream industry of Huangjiu industry is agriculture industry and there are numerous downstream industries, namely, culture and tourism industries, cultural and creative industries, packaging industry, logistics industry, catering industry and other industries. Thus, Huangjiu industry is of great significance to promote employment and revitalize the economy of the production area.

Good wine is produced by fine planting

Most of the production areas do badly in the construction of the raw material base of Huangjiu, mainly because the governments do not play a good role in guiding and coordinating. The construction of the raw material base is of great significance because the base plays an important role in strengthening the value of the production area, improving the level of agriculture, realizing agricultural transformation, alleviating the targeted poverty, building the sightseeing agriculture and improving the ecological environment.

You will be a lifelong Huangjiu lover once you taste it in good wineries.

Combination of culture and tourism is an important growth point of Huangjiu industry in the future. Famous wine enterprises are improving cultural experience of consumption constantly, and the winery will be a new scene of Huangjiu consumption in the future.

Good wine is a symbol of spirit and culture.

We should build the wine city, centering on the history and culture of wine, as a new landmark and scenic spot of wine culture and create the culture totem of the wine city. Cultural and creative industries have great potential. The wine cultural products have strong cultural symbols. A city with culture is of high quality, and a popular city must be prosperous.

Good wine is healthy.

The health care industry is a new industry in the future. You can enjoy beautiful landscapes, take a fresh breath, taste the good wine and culture, participate in the wine making, enjoy delicious food with good wine and get together with your friends in the winery. It can be said that people should enjoy good wine in their ancient and rare years, and youth should accompany with the beautiful life.

In addition, we can do a lot in related industries, namely, packaging industry, wine bottle industry, wine box industry, wine cover industry and logistics industry, which can improve the service ability, be convenient for tracing back to the source, and ensure the authenticity of fine wine. The construction of the industrial chain can strengthen and sustain the main business.

5. Expansion of the production area

The production areas are different. Thus, the construction of the whole industrial chain of Huangjiu should also be carried out according to local conditions. With the concept of sharing economy, the high-quality development of the production area can be realized. In addition, we should expand the industrial structure layout of the production area. Luckily, some production areas have realized cross-regional cooperation in the construction of the raw material base, packaging, utilization of fermentation by-products and other aspects.

6. Legislation of production area and construction of the service platform

The ecological protection can be strengthened through legislation. We should develop natural ecological resources in a reasonable, moderate, careful and effective way to make the natural ecology become the most core resource of the production area. At the same time, we should also legislate on the access of small enterprises and workshops, strengthen the guidance of the government, and scientifically determine the industrial layout and scale in the production area. In addition, small enterprises and workshops should be guided effectively and orderly to realize the transformation according to the new development mode (transform to the winery). What`s more, we should strengthen the supervision and collect taxes in a fair way. And centering on the construction of industrial public service platform, we should cooperate with associations and other institutions to establish the talent training base, R&D base, financial and capital service platform, testing platform, standard system and knowledge system, and promote production area brand (exhibition, forum, professional meeting, etc.), so as to develop domestic and international markets.