Luzhou Laojiao is a strong-aroma-style baijiu distillery based in Luzhou, a city in southwestern China’s Sichuan Province. Luzhou’s winemaking tradition spans about two thousand years and boasts such luminaries as Guo Huaiyu, alleged creator of big-qu baijiu in the fourteenth century, and Shi Jinzhang, who invented pit-fermented baijiu in the fifteenth century. See
Luzhou Laojiao is best known as the pioneer of the “thousand-year pit, ten-thousand-year mash” production method. This involves fermenting a grain mash in large earthen pits, the walls of which absorb yeasts and other microorganisms from the fermentation cycle over time. After a mash is distilled, one quarter is discarded and replaced with fresh grains and qu to begin fermentation anew. A mash is always returned to the same pit, creating an unending cycle that ensures continuity of flavor.
Conventional wisdom suggests that the longer a fermentation pit is used, the greater the complexity of the resulting baijiu. To be fully mature, an “old pit” has to have been in continuous use for at least thirty years. Luzhou Laojiao currently operates 1,600 old pits, more than a thousand of which are at least a century old. It also owns the most ancient baijiu pits in continuous operation, dating from 1573.
In 1959 the Chinese government commissioned the distillery to write the first technical manual for modern baijiu production, Luzhou Laojiao big qu baijiu. It remains an industry leader, particularly for its single-grain strong-aroma-style baijiu, and currently has a stated annual production capacity of 100 million liters.
See also China and strong-aroma-style baijiu.
Wang Wen. “High-End Chinese Brands Coming Soon.” Xinhua, May 1, 2012.
Yang Chen, ed. Lu Zhou Lao Jiao: Zhong Guo Rong Yao 泸州老窖：中国荣耀. Chengdu: Qiyuan Zhiban 启源制版, 2010.
By: Derek Sandhaus