lcohol is big business in Renhuai, a city in Southwest China’s Guizhou Province. The smell of fermenting grains permeates the area. When it rains, the Chishui River – the name means “red water” – turns red and the city government posts a reminder on its website that now is a good time to use the water to make yeast.
For years, the quality of the water and its distinctive color, full of good microbacteria from the area’s red soils and which has no large industries or dams, was a draw for liquor manufacturers. A tributary of the Yangtze, the river is known as the lifeblood of China’s top liquor brands. Now water pollution because of unchecked development of large and small distilleries, both State-run and privately owned, is threatening the very water the distinctive alcohol brands rely on.
If people do not recognize the name of the city, they know the name of its most famous company, the State-owned Kweichou Moutai, which produces a liquor served at all special occasions and State banquets. It is as synonymous with the area as Champagne or Cognac are in France, and in September 2021, Renhuai was recognized as the core production area, or terroir, of China’s sauce aroma liquor by the China Alcoholic Drinks Association and China National Light Industry Council.
The liquor Moutai and other distilleries along the Chishui River produce is a type of baijiu – meaning “white alcohol.” There are four main types of baijiu in China. Sauce aroma baijiu – as in soy sauce – is made from a starter agent (like sourdough bread) added to sorghum, which is fermented multiple times in pits before undergoing the distillation process. This can take up to a year or longer for the aged liquor that Moutai and its competitors sell.
The other major categories include light aroma baijiu made in northern China, strong aroma baijiu associated with Sichuan Province and rice aroma baijiu, popular in southeast China. The fiery baijiu is known for a high alcohol by volume concentration, usually consumed in small shot glasses and knocked back in a series of toasts at weddings, banquets and work-related events.
According to the annual local government report, in 2021 liquor production generated 99 percent of Renhuai’s industrial output of designated enterprises – those of annual revenue of 20 million yuan (US$3m) or more.
Moutai alone, China’s largest baijiu producer with nearly 30,000 employees, posted 2021 revenues of $16.93 billion, according to the annual financial report of the Shanghai-listed company. Liquor production, along with new materials and new energy vehicles is one of nine major sectors the provincial government intends to push for investment, the government declared in early May.
As distilleries multiplied in the Renhuai region, it came at the cost of severe pollution as shoddy construction and short cuts led to untreated wastewater runoff to the area’s watercourses.
Distilling baijiu consumes a huge amount of water. All 11 tributaries of the Chishui River flow through Maotai Town, which gave its name to the brand. Maotai Town contains more than half of Renhuai’s liquor production. However, the water quality of the four of the 11 tributaries is the worst by China’s current standard, even worse than Grade V, declared an environmental inspection team from the central government in a press release in March.
China classifies surface water quality into five tiers from I-V. At Grade V, the water is categorized as poor, and should only be used for general irrigation and landscape requirements. Beyond that, it should not be used for anything. The report warned that illicit land use and construction of liquor enterprises “poses a threat” to the ecological environment along the Chishui watershed.
Renhuai government launched a campaign to crack down on behavior that impaired the water quality. Some small distilleries were closed, merged or acquired. It ordered all liquor producers to install or upgrade water treatment facilities. Projects with incomplete registration procedures were suspended. The government told NewsChina that they would continue their campaign. However, small producers hope the market and regulations will orient the reshuffling rather than government intervention.