The “jiao” in Luzhou Laojiao or Guojiao 1573 means cellar, which is why Guojiao 1573 is also named National Cellar 1573. They are cellars that honored as Major Historical and Cultural Sites Protected at the National Level. That said, what exactly is a “jiao” or “cellar” in Chinese baijiu? Why is it so important for the baijiu of Luzhou Laojiao?

In wine industry, a cellar is the area to store and age wine, while in baijiu industry, a cellar is the “vessel” where fermentation happens. Due to different regions and different climate, the material of the fermentation vessel can be different. For example, we use clay pot for fermentation for Light Aroma Baijiu, while stone pit is the choice for Sauce Aroma Baijiu. The material of fermentation vessel depends on the surrounding environment of specific regions. Although the materials are different, they share the same function.

clay pot (Light Aroma Baijiu)

stone pit (Sauce Aroma Baijiu)

As for Strong Aroma Baijiu, we use mud pit as the the fermentation vessel. This normal looking mud pit turns out to be the soul of Strong Aroma Baijiu. The abundant microorganisms is the key to the complex and intriguing aroma of Luzhou Laojiao Baijiu. It is a “living cultural relic”, a national treasure with fragrance.

In 1573, the provincial level knight of Ming Dynasty Mr Shu Chengzong went back to his hometown Luzhou city in Sichuan. The unique yellow mud from Wudu Creek by the Yangtze River caught his attention. He used mud pit instead of stone pit or clay pot for fermentation for the very first time.

Wudu Creek, with the size of a few football field, contain the unique and irreproducible yellow mud that is perfect for Strong Aroma Baijiu fermentation. The yellow mud is the result of movement of mother earth for millions of years. The yellow mud covers just around 1000 kilometers with 5~6 meters thick. It’s rare and precious.

“Laojiao” means a cellar or a fermentation pit that’s been using for a really long time, thus an old mud pit. Even with the yellow mud from Wudu Creek, an precious old mud pit can only be formed with unique and complicated baijiu making technique and abundant microorganisms that multiply over decades.

To build a fermentation pit is definitely not an easy job. In order to provide enough nutrients to the microorganisms living in the pit, the yellow mud from Wudu Creek with rigorous selection must be blended with some high quality baijiu fermented from other fermentation pits and the liquid that is full of microorganism generated during fermentation. These blended yellow mud will then be put on the inner wall of a rectangle pit underground as the fermentation pit.

yellow mud from Wudu Creek

The fermentation process for Luzhou Laojiao baijiu normally last for 3 months or so. The cellar workers will maintain moisture of fermentation pit with the tails from distillation at the beginning and ending of each fermentation.

Meanwhile, The Qu will scatter on the inner wall of the fermentation pit as the “food” for microorganisms so that they can multiply and flourish.

These microorganisms are necessary for simultaneous saccharification and fermentation. The starch in the sorghum, which is the ingredient for Luzhou Laojiao Baijiu, will convert into sugar, and then sugar into alcohol. A series of aldehyde, acid and esters generated through fermentation will then lead to the formation of different fragrance and thus different style of Chinese Baijiu.

The older the fermentation pit, the more microorganisms multiply, thus the more fragrant the baijiu will be.

In the mud of National Cellar clusters, which were built in 1573 and have been using continuously since then, there are more than 1000 kinds of microorganisms that have been detected. However, there are still so much more that can not be detected and they are still multiplying.

The reason why microorganisms can keep multiplying is because of the unique baijiu making technique of “circulating fermentation” of Luzhou Laojiao. After fermentation, a quarter of the mass of fermented sorghum will be discarded and in the meantime, a quarter of fresh sorghum will be added to the mass. The whole mass will then put into the fermentation pit to go through next batch of fermentation. The whole process will happen again after this batch of fermentation. We call it “circulating fermentation”.

The newly built fermentation pits can only brew entry level products like Erqu. After 10 years of usage, they can brew higher level products like Touqu or Tequ. Old fermentation pits are those pits with more than 30 years of continuous usage. They can then brew Luzhou Loajiao 30 years old , 60 years old or even 90 years old.

It is fair to say that each fermentation pit is an ecosystem by itself. Continuous usage is necessary to maintain such an ecosystem. If a fermentation pit were to leave unused for just a few months, the microorganisms living inside the pit will die and the value of the fermentation pit will drop to zero immediately. A fermentation pit with long history but without living microorganisms is just a relic, nothing more.

In November 1996, the File No. 47 of The State Council stated Guojiao 1573 clusters as Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level, thus honored “National Cellar”. In 2006, due to the special contribution to human civilization, Guojiao 1573 clusters was selected into the preparatory list of 'China World Cultural Heritage'. In 2013, the 1619 old fermentation pits, 16 baijiu making workshop built in Ming or Qing Dynasty and the 3 natural caves for baijiu ageing were honored as Major Historical and Cultural Sites Protected at the National Level. They became the national treasures of China.