Do you know what time taste like?
To our baijiu-making experts, time is a magician. Time can give different flavors to different pots of baijiu. When you are tasting a glass of 10-year-old baijiu and then a glass of 6-year-old baijiu. The flavor difference is actually the taste of time.
Baijiu can be considered as a living thing. The freshly distilled baijiu is at its puberty. It’s very restless, energetic and Insubordinate like a rebellious kid. After a long period of ageing, the baijiu becomes mature, peaceful and mellow with unique tertiary aromas from the fermentation pits and ageing coming out.
We age distillates for Guojiao 1573 with clay pots. They are storage vessels made from clay heated at high temperature (around 1000℃). The unique microporous structure of clay pot allows baijiu storing inside to breathe. The pungent and spicy elements of baijiu volatilizes slowly so that baijiu becomes mellower and smoother. This is the process of baijiu maturation.
Baijiu breathes in oxygen through the clay pot and kicks off redox reaction. In the meantime, it breathes out the volatile pungent elements though the microporous structure of clay pot. During this process of breathing in and out, the molecules of alcohol, water and esters get to rearrange and associate. It’s a balancing process from “Yang” to “Yin”.
After a long time of ageing, the active calcium, iron, zinc and other trace mineral elements are partially dissolved into the baijiu, together with the ester, alcohol and other fragrance components in baijiu forming absorbable and utilizable 'active' complex; These active complex makes the flavor of baijiu softer, and are rich in trace elements beneficial to human body
Mr Zhuang Mingyang, a researcher from Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, who has devoted his life to microbiology and baijiu flavor research, has conducted a special test on Guojiao 1573, and found that Guojiao 1573 has the highest zinc content among various high-end baijiu.
If you have a chance to visit our baijiu storing cave, you will find out the magic that time casts to baijiu. Inside the cave, there are countless clay pots with various flavorful baijiu maturing slowly. Countless clay pots means countless flavors of baijiu.
The reason is obvious. Different spot and different period of ageing will give baijiu different flavors. In that matter, natural cave is the perfect spot for baijiu maturation.
One of our 3 natural caves, chunyang Cave locates at the convergence between Tuo River and Yangtze River. The water of two rivers hit the Sanhua Mountain and Wufeng Mountain and form a sharp curve. The curve marks Jiangyang Peninsula and Qiancao Peninsula of Luzhou city. The former peninsula represent “old” Luzhou and latter represents the up-and-coming “new” Luzhou.
Inside Chunyang Cave, There are numerous clay pots with human height. There is no end in sight. It is 7 kilometers in length, no sunshine all the year round, and the air flow is very slow, so the temperature is kept at about 20℃ and humidity at 85% all the time. At the end of Chunyang Cave, you will see the other natural cave, Zuiweng Cave is actually connected to Chunyang Cave. It is like a maze. However, it’s a maze like this makes smooth, mellow and fragrant baijiu with ultimate quality.
For hundred years, Chunyang Cave and Zuiweng Cave have always been the baijiu storing cave for Luzhou Laojiao. Combing nature and artificial, with careful maintenance and decoration from generation to generation, Luzhou Laojiao baijiu now becomes the best expression of the taste of time.