Duan Wu,
like the other most celebrated traditional festivals in China including Chinese New Year, Qing Ming (the Tomb Sweeping Festival) and Zhong Qiu (the Mid-Autumn Festival), transcends the borders of nations and cultures. They are opportunities for Chinese expats and descendants to revisit their roots, and for foreigners to learn more about the eastern world through festive and symbolic lenses. In England alone, where people are slowly emerging from the other side of the pandemic, at least 10 dragon boat races have been planned around the date in towns across the country.
That is exactly why festival celebrations are often the best occasion for intercultural communications, and also why Cheng International marks them as crucial periods for Baijiu promotion in the UK as part of our ‘Baijiu cultural impact overseas’ strategy.
Our 3 most marketed Wuliangye products in the UK in 2020.
Sichuan Baijiu is commonly hailed as one of the epitomes of Chinese traditional consumables. The south-eastern land in China has contributed quite an array of classic Baijiu, and Wuliangye is undoubtedly the best of the best.
However, the many Baijiu varieties and their nuanced yet remarkable differences can prove to be difficult for foreign consumers, especially Baijiu beginners, to grasp. The overseas promotion of Wuliangye’s rich history and its ‘moderation & harmony, creating pure aroma from various grains’ essence, and accurate communication of each product’s uniqueness remain a challenge – it’s also where our passion lies.
Since debuting Wuliangye on Cheng International’s official Instagram channel in May 2020, due to the extraordinary circumstances of the year, we shifted our focus online: Wuliangye cocktails live events, online masterclasses, and creative Wuliangye cocktail social media video series… At the heart of everything we did remained Cheng International’s embracing of fun, high-quality and trendy methods.
Meanwhile, with Wuliangye now on the shelves of Harrods and Harvey Nichols, the launch of premium Wuliangye into the UK high-end Baijiu market is officially off to a great start.
In May 2020,
Cheng international officially kicked off the English social media campaign for Wuliangye. One of our first moves was live broadcasting Wuliangye cocktail making on Instagram with London-based mixologist Enrico Gonzato as our special guest to demonstrate his take on the classic Chinese spirit.
The mass appeal and the fun, easy-to-replicate nature of cocktails make them a perfect medium to familiarise consumers with a new liquor. Thanks to Enrico’s effortless and insightful remarks, even audiences with zero knowledge of Baijiu were able to pick up some basic knowledge of ‘strong aroma Baijiu’, the beauty in its simplicity, and how to enhance their own experience of Wuliangye with the right pairing.
Enrico Gonzato demonstrating how to make Wuliangye cocktails.
On 27 July 2020,
Cheng International held our very first Wuliangye Online Masterclass.
Unlike the live event, the masterclass mainly targeted professionals with a deep understanding of spirits, such as mixologists, spirit retailers, and those who work in the bar and fine dining sectors. These ‘gatekeepers’ have always been friends and partners that we treasure – successfully introducing Wuliangye to them would mean the best possible start for the brand’s market expansion in this country.
Tracing through Wuliangye’s history, explaining the production processes, and breaking down the tasting notes… The masterclass provided a comprehensive information kit for all participants, but more importantly cementing in their mind a strong link between Wuliangye and strong aroma Baijiu.
Riding on the success of the first masterclass, Cheng International quickly moved on to organise a second on 3 August 2020, themed ‘Baijiu Culture and Lifestyle’. This time, we played on the dual focus of tradition and innovation by explaining Baijiu’s role in today’s everyday life. By doing so, we aimed to strengthen the participants’ memory and understanding of the spirit.
These masterclasses allowed our liquor experts to fall in love with Wuliangye wholeheartedly. They particularly praised its extraordinary quality, five-grain complexity, and mellow taste.
The beginning
of 2021 witnessed the most bizarre New Year, Chinese New Year and Valentine’s Day celebrations in recent years, again due to Covid-19. With families around the world making a toast to their loved ones from afar, Cheng International released special-occasion-themed short videos on Wuliangye cocktail making as Instagram Reels.
With the festive atmosphere and cultural impact of Chinese New Year, we reached out again to younger audiences with our creative sparks.
Since then, Wuliangye has become a recurring feature on our long running ‘Cocktails at Home’ Instagram series.
As of June 2021,
Cheng International has introduced Wuliangye · Laojiu and Wuliangye · Panda to Harrods, and Wuliangchun Elegance (Blue) to Harvey Nichols. Other spirit retailers have also shown great interest in Wuliangye 42% and Wuliangye 1618. Our team will endeavour to bring more Wuliangye ranges to the UK to build up a highly structured market presence.
The land
of Yibin Sichuan, the long history of Chinese spirits culture dating back to the Ming Dynasty, and the unique natural environment and historical conditions over 4,000 years, all made possible the birth and prominence of Wuliangye, a true Baijiu treasure.
The Chinese spirits culture contained in Wuliangye is the purification and deduction of the traditional aesthetic sense of ‘moderation and harmony between man and nature’. Therefore, it is implicit, introverted, but also holds self-respect and aspirations, which are also the nature of Chinese spirits.
The profound brewing technology and excellent performance are continuously demonstrating Wuliangye’s temperament and spirituality as one of the top representatives of Chinese spirits. The inheritance and improvement of over 3,000 years form the perfect quality of Wuliangye, i.e., ‘moderation & harmony, creating pure aroma from various grains’, and have led it into the indisputable spokesman for Chinese spirits culture.
Unique spirits are born in unique places. Sichuan’s special natural conditions, the ancient cellar pits built from 1,368 AD and still functioning to today after 653 years, and the five-grain formula that integrates their quintessence – together they created the top quality of Wuliangye, ‘lingering aroma, mellow taste, strong flavour, fresh touch by throat, harmonious state of flavours and especially well-known full flavours of spirits.’
