Spring Breeze Twenty Years

Chapter 740 Tell me, let's change

After several rounds of drinks and several dishes, Secretary Wang said with a smile, "There are plenty of drinking occasions throughout the year, but this is the first time I've drunk so comfortably. I don't have to worry about drinking too much and making a fool of myself, nor do I have to worry about smelling of alcohol and feeling uncomfortable. The wine is also delicious. Foreigners really do make things different from what we do."

Mayor Guo said, "That's true. If we drink this at every banquet in the future, we can live ten years longer."

Liu Sui said, "That's easy. Tomorrow I'll help you promote it and say that you like drinking this imported liquor, a genuine French liquor. Just wait and see, in less than a month, you'll be drinking this everywhere you go. I guarantee you won't regret it."

Mayor Guo shook his head and said, "What's the use of the city? Who would dare to drink with me? The main thing is going out. To be honest, my stomach isn't doing well now. It starts hurting before I even go to a meeting in the provincial capital. Sigh, I can't not drink."

Liu Sui said, "Just you wait and see. In a while, I guarantee that this kind of wine will be served at banquets in the province. Xiaowei and Xiaohui's shop has influenced more than just our city. It has already spread throughout the provincial capital. How many provincial leaders haven't drunk it? Actually, it's all the same. No one likes drinking. Even the big leaders are made of flesh and blood."

Secretary Wang said, "That's really good, that reduces the pressure considerably."

Chen Hui said, "In the past, our production couldn't keep up. We only produced a fixed amount each year and didn't dare to release any to other regions. In fact, the provincial canteen has asked me for some several times. Now it's fine. Xiaowei and I bought that winery, and from now on, we'll supply our province. When the next batch arrives, I'll send some to the province, and I guarantee you'll be able to drink it there. Drinking this wine regularly can soften blood vessels and is good for your cardiovascular system."

Mayor Guo said, "That's great! We could get a share, right? How much can you produce in a year?"

Chen Hui said, "We've just taken over, so the specific figures aren't out yet, and I can't say for sure. But we should be able to guarantee at least 15,000 bottles a year. And we'll gradually expand production in the future. The main issue is the raw materials. This wine is a dry white wine, so we can only use Chardonnay juice, but Chardonnay production isn't very high. Red grapes have a much higher production volume, but we don't really want to use them."

Mayor Guo asked, "Aren't red grapes acceptable? Is there some reason for that?"

Chen Hui said, "It's not that. The main problem is that there are many varieties of red grapes, resulting in a lot of wine. It's hard to tell the difference between good and bad wines domestically. I'm afraid that one day our brand will be ruined. There are quite a few red wines in China now, but they are mostly wines that can't be sold or don't sell well abroad."

Mayor Guo understood and nodded.

Back in 91, red wine was already quite popular in coastal cities in China, mainly because foreigners couldn't live without it, just like we can't live without tea. They discovered that it was valuable here; any cheap or shoddy product could be bought at a certain price, and that's how the red wine industry was born.

Take Cabernet Sauvignon, for example. They originally labeled the grape variety on the bottle, but Chinese people started to think it was a brand, a famous brand at that. It's ridiculous. It's just the name of a grape variety.

XO has the same fate. It is actually a vintage mark and has nothing to do with the brand. It indicates that the wine has been aged for more than twelve years, or fifty years, or even longer. But in China, which bottle with XO printed on it has been aged for more than two years?

Most of the red wine produced in China is actually low-grade stuff that nobody drinks abroad. Most of it is even produced by our own people. It sells for at most ten or twenty yuan (RMB) abroad, but sells for hundreds or thousands, or even tens of thousands, when it comes back to China.

Those who dealt in red wine all made a fortune. That's how amazing we Chinese are. Go to a foreign suburb, rent a run-down house, sew on a few pairs of underwear, and ask for 30,000 yuan. Someone back home will definitely buy it, and they'll proudly show it off everywhere.

Secretary Wang seemed thoughtful, then turned to Xiao Wei and asked, "Can't we produce better wines domestically?"

Xiao Wei said, "Sure, it's just brewing wine. As long as you have the raw materials, you can produce it anywhere. However, it seems that Chinese people tend to value foreign products more. As soon as they hear that something is foreign, they think it's good and worth the price. But if they hear that something is domestic, they think it's not right and that it's low-end. There's nothing we can do about it."

Secretary Wang asked, "Is it possible to manufacture foreign brands domestically?"

Xiao Wei said, "The possibility of authorization is not very high. People abroad take this very seriously and are afraid that you will ruin their brand."

Secretary Wang said, "Don't you have a factory? Why don't you take it back and produce from there?"

Xiao Wei glanced at Chen Hui, licked his lips, and said, "I really can't say for sure. I haven't thought about it. However, we are planning to produce beer and wine from that region in China. Let me ask. The main issue is the process. Although the factory is now ours, we still need to consult the engineers. Foreigners are different from us; we have to discuss things."

Mayor Guo said, "Yes, Xiaowei is right. I had a deep understanding of this when I went abroad for inspection. Workers have a lot of power, especially skilled workers. They have a lot of say and are not in the same system as us."

Secretary Wang said, "Our ancestors had a history of drinking wine before the Han Dynasty. The poem 'Fine wine in a luminous cup under the moonlight, the pipa urges me to drink on horseback' speaks of how only nobles and royalty were entitled to it back then. That's quite a long history, isn't it? So why, in modern times, is all about foreign wines? Why is it that foreign wines are all considered superior?"

Mayor Guo said, "The issue of development stems from different development directions. Since the Han and Tang dynasties, we have been a major agricultural country. Agriculture and food are the foundation of the nation. It is not economically worthwhile to grow crops like grapes on a large scale, so people gradually stopped growing them. On the other hand, with more grain, our liquor industry develops rapidly. Look at the world, which other country produces and loves liquor like us? It's not an exaggeration to say that the whole country does."

Liu Sui said, "There's also the issue of lifestyle. Wine is like tea abroad; it's a necessity. Whether you're rich or poor, you drink it every day. A few years ago, who had the leisure for that?"

Miler said, "We can't afford that either. Two ounces of baijiu is fine, but what about several bottles of wine? That would cost so much." Everyone at the table laughed.

Secretary Wang said to Xiao Wei, "I heard that you've invested tens of millions of yuan outside the province. Why don't you consider investing more within the province? There are many places in our province with good development potential, like Dalian, Anshan, Beixi, and even our Andong. What do you not like about it? Tell me, and we'll change it."

Xiao Wei said, "Strictly speaking, Andong is the second city we've developed after Fengtian. We've been preparing for this store since last year, and we've invested over a million yuan in total, but it hasn't been launched yet. Soon, the food factory here will be up and running, and the cake shop will also open. The total investment will not be less than five million yuan within two years."

Mayor Guo shook his head and said, "That's too little. You made such a big splash in Fengtian, totaling over 50 million, and in Xidu it was over 30 million. How come it's only 5 million in our Andong? And it's going to drag on for two more years. That's not fair. I'll have to argue with your father-in-law when I get the chance."

Everyone laughed again; the joke had instantly brought them much closer together.

(End of this chapter)