BackAsia: the oldest and the best selling spirits in the world
Indulge takes a look at China's Shui Jing Fang distillery, considered the world's oldest, and South Korea's Jinro, the world's highest selling spirit
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There’s no doubt about it, Asia is the birthplace of spirits as we know them today. If you take a trip to China, you can even visit what is considered to be the oldest distillery in the world, Shui Jing Fang, which is even listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as being founded more than 600 years ago.
It was late last century when an archaeological dig uncovered drying halls, fermentation pits, furnaces and even the base of some ancient stills, all completely preserved. Now a more modern distillery, it is tasked with making China’s best-loved home-grown spirit, Baijiu.
A funny old product, Baijiu is hugely popular in China, yet it hasn’t managed to make many inroads into the rest of the world. Produced using a variety of different grains, from wheat to barley, sorghum and sometimes rice and beans, all naturally fermented either in chambers under the ground, in clay pots or both. The resulting spirit is clear with a rather odd taste: herbal, vaguely fruity, slightly medicinal, with a distinct soy sauce note, meaning that it carries an unusual savoury hint, too. I’ve tried quite a bit of Baijiu, from the mild end of the spectrum all the way up to those classed as “moutai", or powerful ones, and I have to say that I’m just glad I grew up in a country that loves gin and whisky so much.
We all know that the care and level of detail bestowed upon anything in Japan is unsurpassed around the world. Distilling is no different, and the country has a rich history of producing excellent drinks, most recently whisky (something to be focused on, in the brand profile section later on). However, the main national spirit of Japan is shochu, a white spirit that is hugely popular in its native country.
Made using a variety of different base ingredients, including barley, rice, buckwheat or potatoes, it is produced in two main forms: multiple distilled and single distilled.
Multiple distilled is the most commercial and easily consumed style of shochu. This style must be made from a mixed base of fruits or grains, distilled and sold at less than 36% ABV (alcohol by volume), making it nice and easy to drink.
Single-distilled shochu is exactly that: distilled just the once in a pot still and sold at 40–45% ABV. This style may also be matured, but is most often bottled neat.
You may well remember the white spirit edition that we published a year ago, here at Indulge. In it, there was an overview of the biggest selling spirit brand in the world, and those of you who are keen to bank as much obscure knowledge as possible, in case that slot on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire comes calling, will remember what the world’s biggest selling spirit is...
...well, do you? It has to be said that, as far as brands go, this one is huge. But not really outside the country where it is made and consumed. For Jinro, a soju produced in South Korea, is indeed the spirit to outsell any other across the world, selling 65 million cases in 2012. That is a lot of spirit.
The brand is starting to make an impression in other countries and with an ABV of between 20% and 25%, it cleverly avoids the high duty prices in places such as the US. So it is quickly becoming an alternative drink, enjoyed on ice with a variety of mixers.
This colourless and unaged spirit is made using rice as the base ingredient, tasting similar to a low-alcohol vodka, and it is the same easy-mixing profile that keeps it at the top of the global spirits pile.
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