Can whisky conquer Chinese palates?
威士忌能征服中国人的味蕾吗？

SICHUAN IS THE land of baijiu. The south-western Chinese province produces more of the throat-scorching grog than any other. Pernod Ricard wants to make it the land of whisky. In December the first batch of The Chuan Pure Malt, made at the French firm’s five-year-old distillery in rural Sichuan, went on sale. The company hopes to make its tipple as indispensable as baijiu at Chinese banquets.
四川是白酒之乡。中国西南部省份生产的喉咙灼热的蛤蟆比其他任何省份都多。保乐力加希望让它成为威士忌的国度。去年12月，这家法国公司位于四川农村的一家拥有五年历史的酿酒厂生产的第一批川纯麦芽威士忌开始销售。该公司希望让其酒像白酒一样成为中国宴会上不可或缺的酒。

China has certainly taken to whisky of late. It imported about $585m-worth in 2023, three times as much as in 2018. Whisky bars are now common in big cities. A recent report from Baiping, an online spirits marketplace, found that more than half of Chinese imbibers were born after 1990. Many are splashing out on pricier bottles; whereas the volume of imports rose by 6.4% in 2023, their value soared by 23%. These affluent young are the target market for Pernod Ricard, says Alexandre Ricard, its chief executive. His rivals are eyeing the same drinkers. Diageo, a British firm, will launch its own locally produced whisky at a distillery it built in neighbouring Yunnan province. Angus Dundee, a Scottish distiller, has similar plans.
中国最近肯定开始流行威士忌。它在 2023 年进口了价值约 5.85 亿美元的产品，是 2018 年的三倍。威士忌酒吧现在在大城市很常见。在线烈酒市场百平最近的一份报告发现，超过一半的中国烈酒爱好者出生于1990年之后。许多人在价格更高的瓶子上大肆挥霍;2023年进口量增长6.4%，而进口额则飙升23%。这些富裕的年轻人是保乐力加的目标市场，其首席执行官亚历山大·里加德（Alexandre Ricard）说。他的竞争对手正在盯着同样的饮酒者。英国帝亚吉欧（Diageo）公司将在邻近的云南省建造的一家酿酒厂推出自己的本地生产的威士忌。苏格兰酿酒师安格斯·邓迪（Angus Dundee）也有类似的计划。

Whisky is an outlier when it comes to premium Western consumables in China. Most such fare has had a rotten few years. The Chinese middle class, singed by loss of income amid the harsh covid-19 lockdowns of 2022, has put hoarding savings ahead of hedonism. After a surge in demand for foreign cheese in 2021, imports fell year on year in 2022, the first decline on record. Imports of cream, similarly exotic to the Chinese stomach, declined last year, as did those of foreign beer. Wine imports were 70% lower than five years earlier. “Status buying” of Western wine for gifting, entertaining and banqueting is down, notes Jim Boyce, an expert on wine and baijiu in China. Local vineyards, which sprang up around China in the early 2010s, mainly in the arid Ningxia province, are nursing a hangover: production fell from 1bn litres in 2017 to 143m litres in 2023.
在中国，威士忌是西方高端消费品的异类。大多数这样的票价已经烂了几年。在 2022 年严厉的 covid-19 封锁期间，中国中产阶级因收入损失而备受打击，他们已将囤积储蓄置于享乐主义之前。在 2021 年对外国奶酪的需求激增之后，2022 年的进口量同比下降，这是有记录以来的首次下降。去年，与中国胃相似的奶油进口量有所下降，外国啤酒的进口量也有所下降。葡萄酒进口量比五年前下降了70%。中国葡萄酒和白酒专家吉姆·博伊斯（Jim Boyce）指出，用于送礼、招待和宴会的西洋葡萄酒的“地位购买”正在下降。2010年代初在中国各地兴起的当地葡萄园，主要在干旱的宁夏省，正在迎来宿醉：产量从2017年的10亿升下降到2023年的14300万升。

Converting the Chinese to Western flavours has also proved difficult. They often prefer a pungent fermented form of tofu to roquefort. A Chinese cheesemaker told local media in October that households still find cheese unfamiliar. Baijiu makes up the bulk of China’s $150bn in annual spirits sales—a banquet is deemed incomplete without a bottle of the stuff.
事实证明，将中国风味转化为西方风味也很困难。他们通常更喜欢辛辣的发酵豆腐而不是罗克福。去年10月，一位中国奶酪制造商告诉当地媒体，家家户户仍然对奶酪感到陌生。白酒占中国每年1500亿美元烈酒销售额的大部分——没有一瓶白酒的宴会被认为是不完整的。

There is little Western whisky pedlars can do about Chinese consumer sentiment. But they are trying to make their products more agreeable to Chinese palates. Although many ingredients that go into The Chuan must be imported from Europe or America to create recognisable whisky flavours, Pernod Ricard uses some Chinese malts at its Sichuan distillery. Adding to the local character, some of the barrels are made of Chinese oak along with the more typical American or French variety.
西方威士忌小贩对中国消费者的情绪无能为力。但他们正在努力使他们的产品更符合中国人的口味。尽管进入川酒的许多原料必须从欧洲或美国进口才能创造出可识别的威士忌风味，但保乐力加在其四川酒厂使用了一些中国麦芽。除了当地特色之外，一些橡木桶由中国橡木以及更典型的美国或法国品种制成。

At The Chuan’s launch party, a gaggle of Communist Party officials, including a top leader of a nearby town, indulged heavily in the foreign spirit throughout the evening. Asked if he enjoyed it, one nodded woozily with a smile. But he also stuck out his tongue and fanned his mouth, as if to say it was not quite hitting the spot. ■
在《全传》的发布会上，一群共产党官员，包括附近一个城镇的一位最高领导人，整个晚上都沉迷于外国精神。当被问及他是否喜欢它时，一个人微笑着点了点头。但他也伸出舌头，扇了扇嘴巴，好像在说它没有完全击中要害。■

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