China’s Leading Baijiu Producers Launches Whisky

Chinese baijiu producer Guotai has launched two whiskies made using traditional baijiu fermentation methods and matured in bourbon casks, joining a growing number of domestic spirits companies seeking growth beyond a pressured baijiu market.

The Guotai Shang range went on sale Sept. 12 in Guangzhou, with a 50% alcohol sauce-aroma whisky priced at 429 yuan (US$63.90) per bottle and a 46% alcohol sauce-and-malt-aroma version priced at 318 yuan (US$47.52).

Guotai joins producers including Langjiu, Yanghe and Luzhou Laojiao in expanding into whisky, betting that their distribution networks and financial resources can help them gain a foothold in an increasingly crowded market.

Guotai launches sauce-aroma whisky

The whiskies are jointly produced by Guotai’s parent company, Tianjin Tasly Health Industry Investment Group Co., Ltd., and US-based Maritime Brands Inc., with Guotai providing technical supervision.

The range will be available through brand flagship stores on JD.com, Tmall and Douyin. Offline sales will run through distributors serving the group-purchasing market in provincial capitals.

Founded in 1999 and headquartered in Renhuai, Guizhou province, Guotai is a prominent Chinese producer of sauce-aroma baijiu. Its sales revenue exceeded RMB 4 billion  (US$595.83million) in 2024, while annual base spirit production reached 20,000 tonnes. In 2025, sales revenue was broadly unchanged from the previous year, while sales volume rose 8%.

As its baijiu business faces pressure and competition increasingly centres on winning market share rather than expanding overall demand, Guotai has begun branching into other spirits categories, including whisky.

Its whisky initiative dates to early 2025, when it began working with US-based True Essence Foods (TEF) to develop a sauce-aroma whisky. The company subsequently signalled its plans to enter the category.

In December 2025, Guotai unveiled “Lan Oak-Flavoured Spirit” at a cocktail competition in Macau, describing it as its first innovative product in the “sauce-aroma whisky” direction. However, the product did not receive widespread distribution.

In June 2026, SHĀNG, a brand developed in partnership with TEF, launched in Kentucky. The newly released Guotai Shang range is the company’s first whisky offering for the Chinese domestic market.

Major baijiu producers move into whisky

Guotai is far from the first Chinese baijiu producer to enter whisky. Several leading producers have announced whisky strategies in recent years, and some have already brought products to market.

They include Langjiu, which is building its own whisky estate at Mount Emei; Yanghe, which has partnered with Diageo on whisky products; Luzhou Laojiao, which has collaborated with KYLIN Spirits Group; and Gujing, which is developing a distillery with France’s Camus.

Chinese ready-to-drink producer Bairun began construction of its Laizhou Distillery in Qionglai, Sichuan province, in 2019. Now one of China’s largest whisky distilleries, Laizhou had filled more than 600,000 casks with spirit by early 2026.

Betting on China’s whisky market

The push into whisky by Chinese baijiu and ready-to-drink producers reflects the category’s development in China. As Vino Joy News previously reported, in markets with an established appetite for imported spirits, such as Fujian, whisky is moving beyond personal consumption and onto banquet tables.

Import figures also show growth. China imported 35,835,965 litres of whisky worth US$445,416,561 in 2025, increases of 70.25% and 84.12%, respectively, compared with 2020.

Whisky consumption remains concentrated in markets such as Fujian and Guangdong, leaving considerable room for geographic expansion. As the market develops, more Chinese drinks companies are looking to the category as a potential source of growth.

Existing distribution networks offer an advantage

For baijiu and ready-to-drink producers with years of experience in the drinks trade, established distribution networks, sales teams and financial resources could provide an advantage.

Chen Xun, who runs Chinese producer Shumen Whisky, said baijiu companies already have experienced teams and distribution channels they can draw on. Their regional distributors and relationships with drinks retailers can also support a whisky business.

“Companies selling ready-to-drink products have distribution relationships with bars, which are well suited to introducing whisky,” he added.

Wu Yonglei, general manager of Fond Wine, a major wine, baijiu and imported spirits distributor in Xiamen, Fujian, previously told Vino Joy News that Laizhou had recruited professional managers from the baijiu industry in Fujian who brought strong distribution expertise.

Compared with wine and imported spirits companies, Chinese baijiu producers have extensive local experience in distribution and brand management. Over the years, leading producers have built networks reaching from provinces and cities down to counties and townships, with strong access to restaurants, banquets and group-purchasing channels.

Their experience in brand building, consumer development and marketing can also help establish awareness of new categories.

When entering whisky, they can draw on existing distributors, sales teams, retail relationships and brand-management capabilities, potentially reducing the cost of consumer education and distribution expansion.

Baijiu and ready-to-drink producers also tend to have substantial financial resources, giving them greater capacity to support the significant upfront investment required by capital-intensive whisky projects.

A crowded field turns to Chinese flavours

Chinese whisky producers nevertheless face challenges.

Whisky is an imported category, and domestic producers still need time to build consumer recognition alongside Scotch whisky’s centuries of history.

The field is also becoming increasingly crowded. Whether the market can accommodate the growing number of distilleries remains uncertain. A China representative for a Scotch whisky business, who requested anonymity, said China already had more than 50 whisky distilleries, with no clear indication of which would ultimately succeed.

Against this backdrop, some producers are incorporating Chinese elements and drawing on local traditions to distinguish their whiskies and encourage consumer acceptance.

Unlike conventional whisky production, which primarily uses liquid fermentation, Guotai Shang employs the solid-state fermentation process used in Chinese baijiu. According to information about the product, its sauce-aroma whisky begins with solid-state fermentation using Maotai town’s high-temperature daqu, a traditional fermentation starter. The spirit undergoes multiple distillations and ageing in ceramic vessels before being shipped to Kentucky for maturation in bourbon oak casks.

Guotai is thus combining sauce-aroma baijiu’s fermentation methods with whisky’s oak maturation, seeking to introduce a sauce-aroma flavour profile within the whisky category.

Other producers are pursuing similar experiments. TianYouDe is developing whisky made from highland barley, while Bairun’s Laizhou Distillery is experimenting with maturation in huangjiu, or Chinese yellow wine, casks and Mongolian oak casks.

Gujing and Camus are exploring botanical whisky, while KYLIN Spirits, in which Luzhou Laojiao is involved, emphasises Chinese barley, Chinese water and “Chinese casks.”

These efforts suggest that the localisation of whisky is moving beyond Chinese imagery in branding and packaging to encompass ingredients, production methods, maturation and flavour. Producers are seeking to preserve whisky’s defining characteristics while developing a recognisably Chinese identity.

The Scotch whisky representative welcomed such experimentation, pointing to Japanese whisky as a possible model: production rooted in Scotch whisky traditions that incorporated local characteristics to develop a distinct identity. American whisky, the representative added, followed a similar path.