Modern Chinese history in red and white

This time, I enjoyed the feisty drink - dozens of them - from customized tiny, delicate shot glasses. Moutai's signature red-on-white bottle is sturdy (much like liquid soap bottles) compared with top-notch foreign liquor bottles. Its style statement: seemingly alternative.

"Since before the PRC was established (in 1949), Moutai always came in ceramic bottles," Hu Jingshi, the company's internal historian, tells me. "We don't have an exact name for the bottle inventor, but the local people inherited this tradition through generations."

Emperor Xian Feng of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) is said to have commissioned the ceramic bai jiu bottles, with a short neck and a big, round belly. The bottles became rectangular years later. In 1915, Moutai (then-privately owned) started to use cylindrical bottles, similar to today's ones, but in earthy shades.

That year, Moutai also topped a world trade fair held in Southern California, but it was the aroma, rather than the relatively rustic presentation that led to the drink's global recognition, according to a book by company chairman Yuan Renguo.

The Chinese government merged several bai jiu breweries in Guizhou, the country's liquor hub, and set up the Moutai factory as a state enterprise in 1951. The group was listed on two national stock exchanges in 2001. A year earlier, the company imported new production equipment, thereby stopping the manual plastering of labels on bottles, adds Hu.

In the past two decades, Moutai bottles, cases and storage casks have undergone some design changes although key elements remain. "The use of ceramics continues to date," says Li Shuai, the assistant manager at a Maotai Group packaging plant. A 500 ml signature Moutai bottle costs 819 yuan in shops.

The town's bai jiu museum aside, another place to view vintage Moutai is the group's quality control office, where a collection, aged up to 80 years, is housed. Among the most eye-catching contemporary designs is the series on different countries made for the 2010 Shanghai Exposition. An African edition, with wildlife silhouettes received my personal runner-up award, while the postmodern building-shaped bottle for Luxembourg won. (China Daily 01/31/2015 page14)