Luzhou Laojiao Distillery Scenic Area 泸州老窖旅游区

About Luzhou Laojiao Distillery Scenic Area

According to a Sichuan Provincial Local Chronicles Office essay, the pit-aging brewing method behind the site traces to Shi Jingzhang, who in 1425 improved the yeast formula and refined cellar-aging technique, and to Shu Chengzong, later honored as the 'Wine Sage', who in the Ming Tianqi era systematized the pit-cellaring, pit-loading, solid-state fermentation and mud-pit aromatization techniques underlying strong-aroma (浓香) baijiu production; the 1573 cellar pits developed from this lineage.

The State Council approved the cellar pits in December 1996 as a national key cultural-relics protection unit, which the chronicles-office essay calls the baijiu industry's first; Sichuan Online reports the pits have been in continuous brewing use since 1573, which it describes as making them, in its own words, China's earliest-built, best-preserved and longest continuously used original cellar-pit cluster.

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism's own tourism-route page notes the site also holds a second national designation, the Traditional Brewing Technique of Luzhou Laojiao Liquor as a national-level intangible cultural heritage item, and describes it as Luzhou's longest-standing surviving distillery.

What to look for

• the 1573 National Treasure Cellar Pits, four brewing pits in continuous use since the Ming Wanli era
• the brewing workshop, which the Ministry of Culture and Tourism's page describes as Luzhou's longest-standing surviving distillery
• the site's national-level intangible-heritage listing for the Traditional Brewing Technique of Luzhou Laojiao Liquor

Location & getting there

Getting to Luzhou Laojiao Distillery Scenic Area

Confirm the venue or campus, reservation channel and exhibition calendar. A museum name may cover more than one building.

• Search for 泸州老窖旅游区 with 泸州市 and 江阳区.