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Luzhou Laojiao makes and sells Chinese baijiu, a strong clear grain liquor, including its famous National Cellar 1573 brand, mostly to drinkers in China.
Luzhou Laojiao is one of China's big baijiu makers. Baijiu is a clear, fiery grain liquor — often 50% alcohol or more — that Chinese people drink at dinners, weddings, banquets, and business meals. It is the default spirit of Chinese social life, and the premium end of the market is where the real money is made.
The company's crown jewel is National Cellar 1573, a high-end baijiu sold in China and increasingly abroad. Its name refers to a set of fermentation pits in the city of Luzhou, in Sichuan province, that have been used continuously since 1573. Those old pits are not marketing fluff: the mud walls harbor centuries of microbes that help give the liquor its flavor, and they cannot be quickly replicated. That is a genuine moat, similar to how a famous vineyard's oldest vines matter. The broad lineup spans premium bottles down to cheaper everyday baijiu sold under other brands such as Jiaoling and Touqu. Like its rivals Kweichow Moutai and Wuliangye Yibin, Luzhou Laojiao earns its best margins from premium bottles, which sell for hundreds of yuan or more, while mass-market baijiu is more of a volume business. Drinking has softened in recent years as China's economy slowed and the government cracked down on lavish official banquets, which hit demand for expensive liquor. Still, the company has kept expanding and has pushed to sell more overseas, where Chinese restaurants and diaspora customers are a natural first market.
One thing to know: baijiu ages well, so distillers hold huge inventories of aging liquor — it actually improves with time. That ties up cash but also means the product rarely spoils, and batches stored years ago can be sold at higher prices later. In a downturn, that stockpile can cushion the business, though it also means the company's fortunes rise and fall with Chinese consumer confidence and appetite for premium spirits.
Saved answer · last researched 15 Nov 2026