“Still wanting more and leaving lasting impression.” Anyone who attended the “First Linshui Yuquan Fan Festival and Launch of Junlinhui” held by Linshui Liquor Co., Ltd. on August 15 could not agree on this comment more.

Liquor and culture are natural “bosom friends”, and most liquor companies also attached great importance to the combination of brand and culture. Some of them are internally driven by inheritance of culture, some are endorsed by  regional histories and cultures, while others take advantage of local terroir directly. Linshui Liquor Co., Ltd. chooses to provide a cultural and ecological experience in a gentleman’s style.

What kind of Fan Festival it was?

On August 15, the reporter arrived at the Linshui Yuquan Full Year Cave Distillery of Linshui Liquor Co., Ltd. in Dabie Mountains, with a bit of excitement about searching for treasures and seclusion.

The reporter walked into the distillery, following a brand experience officer wearing a pale blue antique dress. At the entrance were six screens, with freehand landscape paintings and elegant calligraphy works on the thin silk. The passage was like a time and space tunnel that led to an ancient and elegant world.

Anyone who found themselves here would exclaimed, “It’s such an overwhelming feel!”

Beautiful snacks were put on the left side of the road, accompanied by some bottles of Linshui Yuquan in which branches were found; on the right side of the road was a screen that read “Ya Ji”, and there was a table in front where writing brushes, ink sticks, paper and ink stones were provided for interested guests to create something. Behind the screen and across a lawn, there was a big pale blue “wall” on which one could see “Ode to Linshui Liquor” in the free running script. The stage was in front, with the logo of “Linshui Yuquan · Junlinhui” standing beside it. Being there, the reporter felt like being a modest, self-disciplined gentleman coming from the ancient word.

Guided by the brand experience officer, the guests began to visit the No. 3 Cave. Coolness hit as soon as they walked into the cave. They came to a long corridor after going down a dozen steps and turning right. Water seeped from the stone walls on both sides. As they moved forward, the huge raw liquor cave of Linshui Liquor Co., Ltd. gradually came into sight.

On one side of the tunnel were a line of rooms for arranged neatly pottery jars containing raw liquor. “They are more banks than distillery caves!” A fan exclaimed.

At the halfway, the “Treasure of the Cave” appeared in No. 3 Cave. In front of visitors were three large jars of raw liquor at an height of an average man, and they were winners of the first prize in the famous liquor appraisal event in Anhui Province in 1981, 1983, and 1986. They were arguably the best liquor products of Linshui. There was a long tasting bar opposite. Linshui Liquor Co., Ltd. prepared 20-year-old vintage liquor for the guests. Ginger tea was served beside to the guests for dispelling coldness when they left the cool and even a bit chilly cave.

As night fell, with light breeze, shining stars, fragrant liquor, and chirping cicadas, a laser crane fluttered from the mountains and forests, instantly attracting the attention of the guests sitting around the table on the lawn. What they heard was the clear sound of orchestra.

In this elegant realm that could only be found in the ancient world, the new product, “Junlinhui”, of “Linshui Yuquan” was unveiled.

What did it mean to have uninterrupted cave storage for twelve years?

Zhang Yunhe, general manager of Linshui Liquor Co., Ltd., once said that it’s Linshui’s dream to make a liquor product that echoes the “low-key and restrained” temperament of the Chinese.

The uninterrupted cave storage for twelve years is just how it turns its commitment to large-scale real self-brewing and real cave storage into reality and is a true portrayal of its unremitting effort to forge products. Linshui Liquor Co., Ltd., which insists on “making a good bottle of liquor” and strives to build product capabilities, has been a pioneer of cave storage liquor in Anhui style since 2008. It built a 6km cave storage base in Dabie Mountain for rolling storage of 10,000 tons of cave storage liquor. So far, the cave storage has been maintained for twelve years without interruption, which is a unique endeavor in China.

In 2016 and 2019, No. 2 Cave and No. 3 Cave of Dabie Mountain in Shucheng were opened one after another. They mainly serve mid-end and high-end users and real “friends of Linshui liquor”.

Zhang Yunhe said that there is no mystery in cave storage except two know-hows: one is “real”, which means real cave storage of liquor; the other is “waiting”, which takes time.

Nowadays, the cave storage base of Linshui Liquor Co., Ltd. in Dabie Mountain is the largest of its kind in East China, and over 10,000 tons of base liquor testifies its “No. 1” position.

Yang Tao, a professor at the School of Food Science and Engineering, Central South University of Forestry and Technology, found in experiments that cave storage liquor has superior softness and maturity rate than liquor stored in other ways. Liquor stored in caves with constant temperature and humidity, micro hypoxia, and micro high pressure shows obvious changes in molecular structure, has significantly improved body quality, and provides more health benefits.

Cave storage poses considerable cost pressure on Linshui Liquor Co., Ltd., but it also builds a solid “moat” of quality, which is the very cornerstone of product capabilities.

Something that stays in your mind will someday spring up in your life. At the Fan Festival, Linshui Liquor Co., Ltd. officially launched a new product called “Linshui Yuquan Full Year Cave Storage · Real Year 1010”. This new product is the first one in the industry that mark double years: the brewing year and the cave storage year. It is rare good product made of real base liquor with a history of over ten years and real storage liquor with the same history. “Linshui Yuquan Full Year Cave Storage · Real Year 1010” is a product that Linshui Liquor Co., Ltd. launches to target at the sub-high-end market segment.

The vintage liquor ingredients are clearly marked on the packaging of the new product, that is, “21.65% in 1996, 62.48% in 2000, 15.87% in 2004”. It is understood that the packaging of the new product has a three-dimensional paper sculpture structure to show the natural ecological beauty of Dabie Mountain in the same way as Chinese goods do.

From cave storage to distillery

Linshui Liquor Co., Ltd. has hosted the Cave Storage Liquor Cultural Festival for six consecutive years since 2014.

This event is a manifestation of the product capabilities and an attempt of cultural experience made by the company. Cultural scenes rely on application and experience. Consumers are more touched by cultural experiences that fit them better. Through the six-year attempt of Cave Storage Liquor Cultural Festival, the “living” experience created by Linshui Liquor Co., Ltd. finally “exploded” at this Fan Festival, allowing fans to deeply experience its culture and product capabilities and stir a kind of resonance.

Lin Feng, a senior research fellow at Yunjiu · China Liquor Brand Research Institute and chairman of Beijing Jundu Zhuoyue Consulting Co., Ltd., said that this fan festival was actually a kind of user education that convinced users of real cave storage through deeper contact and “seeing is believing”. At the same time, the scene experience provided a lively educational activity to spread the culture and brand of the company more vividly.

Cultural output is an important development strategy of Linshui Liquor Co., Ltd., and the launch of “Junlinhui” at this Fan Festival was an important medium. Zhang Yunhe said that “Jun” means the gentlemen culture pursued by the company, “Lin” refers to Linshui, while “Hui” implies elites and appreciation of oriental beauty. To put in a popular saying, “Junlinhui” is a high-end cultural community organization of literati.

The event aimed to create a more experiential offline scene, with liquor as the guide, humanistic aesthetics as the medium, and tipsy as stimulant. Literati and elegant guests were gathered to taste liquor, have a party, and chat.

Zhao Yu, deputy secretary-general of the China Wine Circulation Association and executive vice-chairman and secretary-general of the Retail and Chain Professional Committee, said that currently there are two development trends in the liquor industry: one is competition between big brands, and the other is competition between individualization and differentiation. However, distributors have little chance with many big brands. In this case, resorting to a strong regional brand endorsed by a unique culture provides a chance of survival.

In this regard, Linshui Liquor Co., Ltd. has taken its own path, and this Fan Festival was a true portrayal of its unique brand power, product power and cultural power.