Moutai is a white spirit made from sorghum and falls into the baijiu category — with the one quirk that "Moutai" is at once a type of spirit, an appellation, and a producer: only spirit made in the town of Maotai can be labelled as such, and all production comes from the Kweichow Moutai Company, the result of a mid-20th century consolidation of the various distilleries present in the area.

Its profile is entirely unique and for that reason quite hard to describe; certainly there's a savoury element to it which reminds some of soy sauce — that's attributed to the composition of the water in the upper Chishui River. In any case, it arguably made its first international appearance in 1972 at a state dinner during Nixon's inaugural visit to China. Demand has been extremely high in recent times and that has made older vintages and high age statements very attractive.