Shui Jing Fang is a strong-aroma-style baijiu producer based in Chengdu, the capital city of southwestern China’s Sichuan Province. Its story begins in 1998 when the city’s largest distillery, Quanxing, was renovating its facilities on historic Shui Jing Street and discovered the ruins of a fifteenth-century distillery buried underneath. Once archaeologists had unearthed distillation hearths and fermentation pits, Quanxing scientists synthesized the bacteria found in the pit walls. Using this as the basis for a new premium baijiu, Quanxing released the Shui Jing Fang (fang meaning workshop or distillery) brand in 2000.
It was around this time that foreign spirits corporations began taking an interest in baijiu. The industry, which had experienced uninterrupted profit growth since the 1980s, presented an attractive target for acquisition, but most of the distilleries were state-owned and protected by policies preventing their sale to foreign entities. British spirits company Diageo sidestepped this obstacle in 2007 by striking an agreement with Quanxing’s parent company to splinter Shui Jing Fang off into a new corporation of which Diageo would be a minority shareholder. Over the next several years, at a cost of hundreds of millions of pounds, Diageo increased its share until it became the company’s majority shareholder in 2011. See Diageo.
Shui Jing Fang had by this point established itself as a leading high-end baijiu brand in China and was beginning to see some success abroad, particularly in South Korea. However, due to the austerity measures imposed in 2013 by new president Xi Jinping that devastated the premium baijiu segment, the company was forced into a period of retrenchment. By the late 2010s, this was essentially over, and Shui Jing Fang resumed its assault on the global luxury market.
See also strong-aroma-style baijiu.
“Pouring a Big One.” China Economic Review, May 1, 2008.
Sonne, Paul, and Laurie Burkitt. “China Approves Diageo Baijiu Bid.” Wall Street Journal, June 27, 2011.
By: Derek Sandhaus