After more than a century devoted to beer, Tsingtao Brewery is making an unexpected move: into whisky.
The Chinese brewing giant has struck a long-term partnership with Ireland’s Great Northern Distillery, giving it an immediate route into imported whisky while laying the groundwork for something more ambitious – its own whisky distillery in China.
Tsingtao is not alone. Shanghai Bairun Investment Holding Group, the company behind China’s dominant ready-to-drink cocktail brand RIO, is preparing to pour more than RMB 1 billion (US$148.78 million) into expanding its whisky maturation capacity.
The investments come as whisky consumption in China begins to move beyond its traditional strongholds of bars and at-home drinking. In parts of southern China, whisky is increasingly appearing at business dinners and wedding banquets, encroaching on occasions long dominated by baijiu and Cognac.
The shift is turning what was once a relatively niche imported spirit into a category that some of China’s biggest drinks companies are betting could become a much larger market.
Tsingtao Makes Its Whisky Move
Tsingtao Brewery announced a long-term partnership with Ireland’s Great Northern Distillery earlier this month, formally marking its entry into whisky.
Under the agreement, Great Northern will supply Tsingtao with a range of Irish whiskies aged from three to 21 years, which will be distributed through the brewer’s extensive domestic sales network.
The two companies will also form a specialist blending team to develop whiskies tailored to Chinese tastes and the broader Asian market, according to the company announcement.
But Tsingtao’s ambitions extend beyond importing and distributing Irish whisky. The company is also planning to build its own whisky distillery in China, with Great Northern providing technical expertise and support.
Based in Dundalk, Ireland, Great Northern Distillery was founded by Irish whisky pioneer John Teeling and began production in 2015. One of Ireland’s largest independent distilleries, it operates primarily as a B2B producer, supplying bulk whisky, contract distillation, private-label products and blending services to brands around the world.
According to its website, Great Northern has an annual production capacity of 20 million liters and holds more than 500,000 casks in inventory.
Founded in 1903, Tsingtao is one of China’s oldest and best-known beer producers. Over more than a century, it has built a nationwide production and distribution network, with products spanning mainstream lager, premium beer, wheat beer and dark beer.
In 2025, Tsingtao reported revenue of RMB 32.47 billion (US$4.83 billion), up 1.04% year on year, while net profit attributable to shareholders rose 5.6% to RMB 4.59 billion (US$682.9 million).
And it is not the only major Chinese drinks company placing a bigger bet on the category.
On June 17, Bairun, one of China’s leading cocktail producers and the parent company of RIO, unveiled plans for a private placement to raise as much as RMB 1.305 billion(US$194 million).
Of that, RMB 1.14 billion(US$170 million) is earmarked for expanding malt whisky maturation capacity, part of a project with total planned investment of RMB 1.36 billion(US$202 million). Another RMB 165 million(US$24.55 million) will go toward a research and testing center.
Bairun began building its whisky business around 2019, investing in Laizhou Distillery in Qionglai, Sichuan. The distillery now produces whisky, gin, vodka and other spirits.
By the end of 2025, Laizhou had filled nearly 600,000 casks and developed the capacity to manage as many as 1 million oak barrels.
Whisky Moves Onto the Banquet Table
The wave of investment comes as the way Chinese consumers drink whisky is beginning to change.
In Guangdong and Fujian, two of China’s most developed markets for imported spirits, whisky is moving beyond bars and at-home consumption and into the much larger banquet market.
Traditionally, banquets in the two southern provinces have been dominated by baijiu, with wine playing a secondary role. When imported spirits appeared, Cognac typically ruled the table, particularly Rémy Martin, Martell and Hennessy — collectively known to generations of Chinese consumers as the “three major foreign spirits.”
Whisky is beginning to challenge that hierarchy.
“In Fujian, whisky has already entered business dinners and wedding banquets across the board,” Wu Yonglei, general manager of major Fujian drinks distributor Xiamen Fond Wine, told Vino Joy News.
“For wealthier consumers choosing alcohol, it’s generally Moutai, The Macallan or Penfolds. Those with a smaller budget might choose brands such as The Singleton or Grant’s.”
A veteran whisky merchant described a similar trend, particularly around Quanzhou, a prosperous commercial hub in southern Fujian known for its elaborate wedding and celebratory banquets.
“Imported spirits at these occasions used to be predominantly Cognac, but whisky has become increasingly common in recent years,” said the merchant, who asked not to be named.
Popular choices include leading single malts such as The Macallan, Glenfiddich, The Balvenie and The Singleton, the merchant said.
Trading Down Is Giving Whisky an Opening
Part of whisky’s growing appeal comes down to price.
As Chinese consumers become more cautious about spending, Wu believes whisky offers an attractive alternative to premium Cognac.
“The ‘three major foreign spirits’ are relatively expensive,” he said. “With consumers trading down, many have realized that plenty of 12-year-old Scotch single malts cost only RMB 200 to RMB 300. They offer better value for money than Cognac, so consumers have started choosing them.”
The anonymous whisky merchant agreed that the broader shift toward value is helping whisky gain ground at banquets. Demand for 12-year-old single malts continues to grow, the merchant said, while higher-age-statement whiskies have weakened.
China’s latest import figures, however, paint a more nuanced picture.
In the first half of 2026, China imported 15.56 million liters of whisky, down 9.18% from a year earlier. Yet import value climbed 15.74% to US$242 million.
The divergence — lower volumes but higher value — points to a sharp increase in the average declared price of imported whisky.
Price alone also cannot explain whisky’s growing presence at the banquet table. Brand recognition is becoming increasingly important.
Banquet drinking in China is highly visible. The bottle on the table is not simply a drink but a signal of the host’s taste, generosity and status, making recognizable brands particularly important.
“In the past, when people talked about foreign spirits, they generally meant Rémy Martin, Martell and Hennessy — the ‘three major foreign spirits,’” Wu said. “Now, when many people in Fujian talk about foreign spirits, they mean whisky.”
For Wu, that shift is evidence that whisky brands are gaining recognition well beyond their traditional enthusiast base.
Major whisky companies are also actively cultivating the banquet channel, borrowing tactics once used successfully by Cognac houses.
“The approach is very similar to what Cognac brands used to do,” Wu said. “They create standardized table settings at each banquet to maximize brand visibility and provide service staff to pour drinks for guests. It makes the whole occasion feel very premium and helps establish the brand image quickly.”
Plenty of China Is Still Untapped
Despite that progress, whisky consumption remains heavily concentrated in Fujian and Guangdong, leaving much of China relatively underdeveloped.
For the industry, that represents both a limitation and an opportunity.
“There are still many blank spaces in China’s whisky market,” the anonymous merchant said. “Most consumers still don’t really know whisky. If you have patience, there are opportunities.”
That untapped potential is one reason established drinks companies are moving into the category before it matures.
But whisky’s growing popularity has also created a familiar problem for distributors: the bigger the brands become, the easier their prices are to compare.
Big Brands, Transparent Prices
Fond Wine, whose core business has traditionally been wine and baijiu, has recently expanded into whisky, taking on Scotch brand Lauder’s No. 76.
The Lauder’s brand dates to 1834 and won gold medals at the Paris Universal Exhibition and Chicago’s World’s Columbian Exposition in the 19th century. It has since built a presence in Europe and global travel retail.
Wu said he began watching the whisky market as early as 2020. But his eventual decision to enter the category was shaped partly by a problem he sees with the biggest imported brands: price transparency.
“Not long ago, I was visiting the market in Nan’an, and a distributor told me that as soon as he opened Waimai Alcohol Delivery, the prices of all the major whisky brands were there for everyone to see — and they were even cheaper than his own prices,” Wu said. “There was simply no way to do business.”
“That’s why I decided to work with a product whose pricing is less transparent and that distributors would be more willing to accept.”
Wu said the brand uses a shorter route to market, distributing more directly to retail outlets. The aim is to preserve margins for distributors while still offering consumers competitive value.
Imported Whisky Has a Window — for Now
For all the investment pouring into Chinese whisky, Wu believes imported producers retain a significant advantage.
Time.
“Chinese whisky has one disadvantage: domestic distilleries don’t have much history, and their current products don’t yet have meaningful age statements,” he said. “That means imported whisky still has a five- to six-year window.”
But that advantage may not last.
Wu believes the marketing and distribution capabilities of China’s biggest domestic producers should not be underestimated. He points to Bairun’s Laizhou whisky operation, where many executives have experience in the baijiu industry and bring with them extensive knowledge of Chinese distribution and brand building.
“Once Chinese distilleries reach the necessary maturation ages, domestic whisky will be able to compete with imports on much more equal terms,” he said.
Capital has poured into Chinese whisky in recent years, accompanied by a rapid expansion in distillery numbers.
According to previously released figures from the China Alcoholic Drinks Association, China now has more than 50 domestic whisky distilleries. Global spirits groups including Pernod Ricard and Diageo have also established whisky production operations in the country.
But unlike beer, baijiu or ready-to-drink cocktails, whisky comes with an unavoidable constraint: it takes years before the product is ready to sell.
That creates a formidable financial barrier for an emerging industry. Distilleries must continue spending on production, casks, storage and operations while waiting years for their stocks to mature.
Grace Vineyard, China’s first publicly listed boutique wine producer, previously removed its whisky assets from the listed company partly because the business required prolonged investment without the prospect of meaningful revenue in the short term.
Chen Xun, founder of Sichuan-based Shumen Whisky, sees cash flow as one of the biggest hurdles facing domestic distillers.
Shumen has been operating for four years, and its oldest spirit has now been maturing for more than three years. The distillery has yet to release a commercial whisky.
“We plan to start bottling and selling next year because we need to wait until four years before we can label it as single malt,” Chen said.
Even then, a four-year-old Chinese whisky will be competing against imported products with age statements of 10, 12 years or more.
And time in the cask is only part of the challenge.
Chinese whisky also has to overcome a perception gap.
Whisky arrived in China as a foreign spirit, and decades of consumption have built familiarity and prestige around imported Scotch, Irish, American and Japanese brands. Domestic whisky, by comparison, is still a new proposition for most consumers.
Building comparable recognition will require time, marketing investment and, ultimately, confidence in the liquid itself.
For international producers, that leaves a window of opportunity. For Chinese drinks companies such as Tsingtao and Bairun, however, the scale of their investments suggests they are already looking beyond that window — toward a market in which whisky is no longer simply a foreign spirit imported into China, but an increasingly important category produced, marketed and consumed at home.
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