贵州茅台酒提价20%High spirits all round as price of China’s new year liquor rises 20%

Spirits are running high ahead of this week’s Chinese New Year holiday as prices of a popular grain liquor soar.

中国农历新年前夕，白酒价格飙升，人们的消费热情高涨。

Moutai, the fiery official liquor for state banquets since the Communist revolution, has been variously described by foreign dignitaries as “liquid razor blades” and “smelling like a barnyard and tasting like turpentine”. It was famously inflicted on Richard Nixon during his historic visit to China in 1972, and on Margaret Thatcher in 1984 after she agreed to return Hong Kong to China.

自从新中国成立以来，茅台这种烈性酒就一直被官方定为国宴用酒。外国政要曾以各种方式描述茅台，称其为“白酒剃刀”和“闻起来像谷场，喝起来像松脂”。众所周知的是，美国前总统理查德•尼克松(Richard Nixon)在1972年历史性地对中国进行访问时，以及玛格丽特•撒切尔(Margaret Thatcher)在同意将香港交还中国后于1984年访华时，茅台酒曾让他们吃过苦头。

But for those seeking the perfect gift to curry favour with Chinese officials, moutai is indispensable at this time of year. With annual food inflation hitting 7.2 per cent last year and with stocks running dry, the state-controlled company that makes China’s most famous moutai brand raised wholesale prices 20 per cent this month – its first increase in a year.

但对那些寻找完美礼物讨好中国官员的人而言，茅台是每年这个时刻必不可少的东西。由于年度食品通胀率去年达到7.2%，再加上库存几近枯竭，打造中国最著名茅台品牌的国有企业——贵州茅台酒厂(China Kweichow Moutai Distillery)从1月1日起将批发价上调20%，这是它在一年内首次提价。

For a standard half-litre bottle of Feitian Moutai, which has an alcohol content of 53 per cent, China Kweichow Moutai Distillery is now recommending a maximum retail price of Rmb959 ($146). Retail prices have, however, leapt from less than Rmb700 at the start of 2010 to more than Rmb1,300 before the Year of the Rabbit.

对于标准的500毫升容量53度飞天茅台酒而言，贵州茅台酒厂现在建议的最高零售价为959元人民币(合146美元)。但实际上，零售价格已从2010年初的不到700元飙升至兔年前夕的逾1300元。

Empty bottles of vintage Moutai, which are very difficult to fake, can now fetch well over Rmb5,000 on the black market. Counterfeiters refill the old bottles with new, inferior moutai for resale at exorbitant prices. Kweichou Moutai reserves 40 per cent of its annual output for direct sale to Communist party and government departments at set prices, insulating officials from the worst of the price rises.

很难仿制的茅台年份酒的空瓶，目前在黑市上的价格已远远超过5000元。造假者在旧瓶中装入新的次等茅台酒以高价重新销售。贵州茅台每年会把40%的产量以固定价格直销给党政部门，中国官员们因此不会受到茅台酒涨价的困扰。