Picture source: Kongfujiajiu’s official WeChat ID
The Shandong liquor market, which rarely has “real vintages”, welcomes a big player this time. A few days ago, Kongfujiajiu launched a sub-high-end strategic product, including two genuine vintage wines of 5 years and 8 years. Not only does it focus on "real vintage", but it is also available in limited quantities. Some experts believe that the launch of this product is expected to fill the gap of "real vintage" old wine in the Lu wine market.
After nearly 30 years of development, the slightly chaotic vintage liquor market will also usher in the "pruning" of the new policy on the true vintage of liquor. In this context, "true vintage" products continue to test the market, and "telling the truth" in vintage wine has become a general trend.
Vintage wine chaos
A closer look at the concept of "vintage wine" is actually an "imported product". In the early days, foreign countries classified wine, brandy , whiskey and other alcoholic beverages based on their vintage. In the 1990s, the concept of vintage wine was grafted onto liquor, and it was gradually accepted and loved by the public.
Moutai, the leading liquor company, was the first to promote "vintage liquor" for liquor. At that time, it launched four aging liquors of 15 years, 30 years, 50 years and 80 years. Immediately afterwards, liquor companies tested the waters one after another and entered the track of genuine vintage wines, causing the already dazzling liquor market to experience the phenomenon of "no wine, no vintage".
On the one hand, the vintage liquor market is developing rapidly and growing; on the other hand, the market is a mixed bag and chaotic. Many liquor companies have begun to "talk themselves" or even falsely promote their products, and the year data they give is neither true nor authoritative. From the consumer side, consumers do not know much about the vintage numbers of liquors on the market. There is a consensus that the older the liquor, the better. However, as the "jiu craze" and the high-end trend of liquor become more and more obvious, vintage wine seems to have become a "fudge" that has nothing to do with the wine body.
The main reason for this phenomenon is that China's liquor industry has no rules to follow in terms of vintage wine definition and vintage wine labeling, which allows some wine companies to find loopholes and take advantage of loopholes. Liu Zhenguo, deputy secretary-general of the China Liquor Association , has expressed the same view. He believes that vintage liquor has always been a matter of great concern to the industry and the consumer market. However, due to the lack of normative standard constraints, there is no implementation standard for vintage liquor products that can be referenced. , leading to confusion in the vintage wine product market.
Zhijiang Liquor IndustryChairman and General ManagerZhu Wei also discussed in an interview the problem of a large number of fake vintage wines on the market. Some large wine companies are skirting around, for example, only marking numbers on the products without "year" appearing. Words such as "year" and "year" mislead consumers; some small wine companies even label false years. In fact, the establishment history of the winery is not as long as the year marked on the vintage wine. There are constant criticisms about the vintage wine market, and people in the industry hope to establish systematic standards within the industry to put vintage liquor on the right track as soon as possible.
The "New Deal" may affect the future pattern
In fact, the liquor industry has long been calling for rectifying the chaos of vintage wine and establishing a standardized system. Since the beginning of this century, with the birth of the concept of vintage wine, the China Liquor Industry Association has begun research on vintage wine standards. In 2019, the industry's first group standard "Liquor Vintage Liquor" was released. According to this standard, vintage liquor should be brewed with traditional liquor technology and blended with the base liquor after being stored for three years or more. The year marked is the weighted average of the main base liquor. age, and the total amount of the main base wine should not be less than 80% of the total amount of base wine. The year marked is an integer of the weighted average wine age, which has become the key to understanding "vintage wine".
Regarding this group standard, beverage industry analyst Ouyang Qianli once said bluntly: "If you strictly follow this standard, few companies and products in the market can fully comply." However, there is a lack of strict and mandatory industry standards. Supervision has become the root cause of the exaggeration of vintage wine. In addition, a large number of Chinese wine companies have no affiliation with local wine associations, which also makes it difficult to implement this standard to a certain extent.
At the end of 2021, the State Administration for Market Regulation drafted the "Liquor Production Licensing Review Rules (Draft for Comments)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Draft for Comments") with a total of eight chapters and 51 articles, and publicly solicited opinions from the public. Article 38 of which regulates vintage liquor Key regulations have been carried out in the Fuzzy Zone, requiring wine companies to indicate the true age and proportion of all base wines on their labels. Because the judgment standard for vintage wine products is based on "true vintage and proportion", this regulation is also known as the "True Vintage" New Deal.
Picture source: Kongfujiajiu official WeChat account
According to the requirements of the draft, companies producing vintage wines should establish vintage wine quality and safety standards, and vintage wine labels should truthfully indicate the true years and proportions of the various base wines used. In other words, the previous practice of some wine companies using numbers on vintage wine packaging to blur the proportion of new and old wine through concepts such as blending and weighting will not be allowed. Comparing the new regulations, not all the products of many wine companies currently meet this requirement. Song Quanhou, deputy director of the China Food Fermentation Industry Research Institute, once said in an interview with the media that if the draft for comments is strictly implemented, it will affect There are currently many companies on the market.
Industry insiders pointed out that once the new "authentic vintage" regulations are implemented, it will have a deterrent effect on companies, at least at the labeling level. Products that arbitrarily mark the year on the packaging and do not clearly adjust the proportion will face penalties. Non-compliant products Need to change packaging. At the same time, the vintage wine market will usher in a round of purification. In the past, the chaos of labeling and promoting "30-year-old wine" but actually only a few drops of old wine will no longer be able to escape.
Finally, the implementation of the new regulations will make “genuine vintage” a yardstick for judging the quality of vintage wines, bringing about a collective shift in related products.
Due to the lack of unified standards, most of the definitions and titles of vintage wines in the industry have been self-proclaimed. On the market, there are "cave storage", "aging", "aging", "cellaring", "cellar age", etc. The concept continues to confuse the public, and the new regulations boil down the definition of various vintage wine products into two dimensions: real vintage and real proportion.
In other words, under the rigid requirements of the national market supervision level, "true vintage" will become the standard for most products, and will also become the yardstick for judging the quality of vintage wines. It is not ruled out that "true vintage" will become the standard for vintage wines in the future. synonym.
"True Vintage" test market
The new regulations have not yet been implemented, and the "True Vintage" liquor market is already ready to move. Many wine companies are targeting the golden sign of "True Vintage" and want to display their ambitions in this segmented track.
In March this year, Zhu Wei personally appeared in a CCTV commercial for Zhijiang "True Vintage", once again promoting Zhijiang's "True Vintage" series of products. According to the data, Zhijiang’s “True Vintage” series of products were officially launched in September 2020. They are divided into three single products: 3 years, 6 years, and 12 years. Alcohol , reject any chemical additives" commitment.
According to data released by Zhijiang Liquor Industry, sales of new products reached 140 million yuan in just one year after they were launched. In addition, relevant data shows that in January this year, the total monthly orders for Zhijiang's "True Vintage" exceeded 30 million yuan for the first time, and its core single product "True Vintage 6 Years" was once out of stock.
On the 15th of the same month, Guotai Wine released the 2022 Guotai National Standard, and pioneered the labeling of double-year certification on the bottle, that is, the year of brewing plus the year of production, which means that this bottle of wine is based on The marked brewing year wine is the main body, and is carefully blended with high-year old wine. This move by Guotai Liquor Industry, as Yan Xijun, chairman of Guotai Liquor Industry, said, is "showing the sword" to the liquor industry, and it is also a high-profile announcement to the vintage liquor market that making vintage liquor means not being afraid of disclosure and being "authentic."
Picture source: China Liquor Association’s official WeChat account
More than a month ago, Jin brand Maopu herbal vintage wine was launched, focusing on the powerful combination of “true vintage” and “herbal pulp”. Coupled with the new "true vintage" product of Kongfujiajiu, the market for vintage liquor in 2022 will be unprecedentedly popular. Obviously, it is imperative to follow the "real year, real proportion" and let the vintage wine "tell the truth".With conscious compliance within the industry and continuous improvement of national supervision, the vintage liquor market may reach a higher level.
proofreading: Ling Zaiqing
