A Huawei veteran embarks on a brewing journey on Chongming Island, where he sharpens his sword for ten years. Uncle | Farm | Brewing
In 2012, Liu Haiqing, a Sichuan based IT veteran who resigned from Huawei, opened a farm on Chongming Island and called himself "Uncle Haiqing". Five years ago, when interviewing him, Liu Haiqing's farm was operating with great success. At that time, he and a winemaker were developing a type of original fermented fruit wine and longed for the day when this fruit wine could leave Chongming Island.
Liu Haiqing's persistence in original fruit wine stems from his unwillingness. Once, someone shook their head after drinking the wine served by the farm and said, "It doesn't have the same taste as when I was a educated youth thirty years ago.". Uncle Haiqing was "hit hard" in his heart at the time, but he also saw the opportunity. "I swear to make a wine with a lingering aftertaste and fragrance."
Now, Uncle Haiqing has fulfilled his dream, and the original craft wine "Huajian Qing" developed by his company has entered the dining tables of supermarkets and ordinary people. If we start counting from the first day of planting fruit wine dreams, it can be considered a sword sharpened in ten years.
Uncle Haiqing cycling on the island
To form an alliance
Chongming Island is rich in old Baijiu, which is a good product for cultural tourism. Liu Haiqing built a field wine tasting house on the "Half Day Idle" farm. At night, the campfire was lit up, and the fine wine set off the sunset. However, the wine in the tasting room was slightly inferior.
"Why do customers regret that they don't have the same taste as they did in the past? It is because many fruit wines are mixed and mixed." Liu Haiqing likes to taste wine, whether rice wine or fruit wine. The home brewed wine is different from the batch produced wine. For example, the taste of hand stone soybean milk and breakfast soybean milk is slightly different. "The difference between handcrafted and mechanically produced liquor may be only 1%, and what customers miss is that 1%."
This 1% has aroused Uncle Haiqing's competitiveness. He met a "wine enthusiast" on Changxing Island who was also obsessed with brewing this 1%.
Shen Liangchun, a wine enthusiast, first made his name in Shanghai alleys and has been brewing his own wine for over 30 years. My wife and I both enjoy drinking alcohol, so it's inevitable to drink fake wine. To avoid the harm of fake wine, Shen Liangchun aspires to make a pure natural and fermented fruit wine. For this reason, he searched for various professional books on brewing techniques, brewing production techniques, etc., drew inspiration from ancient brewing techniques, continuously practiced, and explored a set of brewing techniques suitable for most fruits in China. As a result, more and more people came to the alley to taste wine.
By chance, he came to Changxing Island and found that some oranges on the island couldn't be sold, so a car was dumped into the river. "Isn't it a pity?" Shen Liangchun had the idea of brewing orange wine.
But making orange wine is difficult because the aroma of the orange lies in the skin, which cannot ferment, otherwise the wine will become very bitter, and the brewing process cannot be heated, which increases the difficulty. But Shen Liangchun is not afraid of challenges. "If orange wine can ferment successfully, it will not be difficult for other fruits to make wine." Therefore, he tried hundreds of yeast species both domestically and internationally, and developed formulas time and time again.
"After finally brewing 1000 pounds, I took a sip full of hope, but it was still bitter and not the taste I wanted." Shen Liangchun recalled that he had conducted hundreds of experiments at the time, and poured out thousands of pounds of oranges alone, almost giving up.
Hard work pays off for those who have a heart, and after continuously improving the yeast formula, he gradually found a feeling. "That time, I called a few people in the circle to come and taste the fermented wine. As soon as the lid was opened, the whole room was filled with fragrance. A few people tasted it and praised it endlessly."
At this moment, the alcoholic Shen Bichun and Uncle Haiqing met in Chongming. The fruit wine brewed by Jiu Chi is exactly the taste that Uncle Haiqing is looking for. The two of them hit it off and decided to work together on a career.
A winding road
Uncle Haiqing gave the fruit wine a poetic name: Hua Jian Qing. He also bought an old Baijiu factory on Chongming Island to invest in the wine brewing workshop, and employed more than twenty islanders.
"This is a famous old Baijiu factory in history. The factory director once served as the president of Chongming Old Baijiu Association," said Yi Xinhua, secretary general of Chongming Old Baijiu Association.
The dark horse winemaker in the fruit wine industry and a retired Huawei veteran have teamed up to establish a new brand of original fruit wine, as well as their own processing plant. This "beginning" is good, but it is not so easy for fruit wine to become popular.
"People in our circle think it tastes good, but it's a big challenge to break through the complex and diverse alcoholic beverages." Liu Haiqing admitted that the marketization of "Hua Jian Qing" has taken a detour.
They initially brewed a 12 degree wine, but found it difficult to open up sales. "12 degree wine is almost the world of wine, and this is already a fully competitive saturated market, which is difficult," Liu Haiqing said.
So we started brewing 6 degree fruit wine, targeting the young population. "Young people like to gather at parties, several times a night, and enjoy drinking until they are slightly tipsy. 6 degree wine can make even those who are not strong enough willing to try it."
Chongming old Baijiu is famous far and near. In order to take advantage of old Baijiu, they tried to mix Chongming rice wine and fruit wine to make compound fruit wine. In this way, there is both the fragrance of rice wine and the fruity aroma of fruit wine, and the taste must be good.
"But when this mixed wine was made, it failed," Shen Liangchun explained. The mixed rice wine would slowly turn yellow, and after sedimentation, it would mask the taste of the fruit wine. Over time, the fruit wine would turn into rice wine. "Even if the content of fruit wine is increased, it will eventually revert back to the taste of rice wine, completely masking the characteristics of fruit wine."
The road of mixing and matching has not been completed, and "Hua Jian Qing" has returned to her true colors. "Simply put, fruit wine is fruit wine, and even different types of fruits are not mixed together," said Uncle Haiqing.
Returning to her true colors, "Hua Jian Qing" gradually highlights her advantages. In the field of fruit wine, there are mainly three categories: one is brewed fruit wine, such as bayberries and green plums; One is to mix wine, which is made of essence, alcohol, pigment and fruit juice; Another type is pure fermented fruit wine, which is made by fermenting natural fruits. It is the most nutritious and healthy category, but also the most difficult one in the production process.
The production process of ordinary fruit wine involves canning fruit juice, adding alcohol, blending pigments, and then canning and packaging it into a blended wine; The process flow of fermented fruit wine includes beating and pressing, yeast fermentation, pressing and filtering, and sterilization and canning.
Fruit wine series
"The brewing technology of pure natural fermented fruit wine has achieved" three zeros ", namely zero essence, zero pigment, and snack alcohol, breaking through the single variety of grapes and realizing the diversification of multiple fruit wines." After the positioning was clear, Shen Duchun gave full play to his brewing expertise, followed by orange fruit wine, and successively developed a series of pure fermented fruit wines such as mulberry, pear, peach, cherry, strawberry, blueberry, blackberry, grapefruit, etc.
Generally, fruit wine has a fruity taste and color, but lacks the essence of fruit wine. Fermented fruit wine has a fermented mellow aroma, which is a natural fruit and wine aroma that lingers in the mouth for a long aftertaste. Shen Liangchun is quite confident in his exclusive secret recipe for brewing fruit wine: blackberry wine has a round and full taste, rich but not flashy; The lingering aroma of pomelo wine is accompanied by a slight astringency of pomelo peel; Huangtao wine is soft and sweet, with a refreshing and clean aftertaste
Fulfilling dreams
"Hua Jian Qing" gradually improved, and Uncle Haiqing's farm became lively and fragrant. Campfire paired with fine wine, if in high spirits, tourists will also DIY and pair with various fruit wines. "Huajian Qing" has become a ceremonial celebration wine and souvenir for the Half Day Idle Farm.
The popularity of fruit wine in small circles, as a friend of Huayou, Uncle Haiqing clearly does not quench his thirst. At the end of 2021, a fund invested in "Huajianqing" and the investment institution was a friend of Haiqing Uncle's Huayouquan Banking System. They have investment experience in multiple well-known brand products in the fast-moving consumer goods industry. "We have been following us for several years," Uncle Haiqing said. "These friends came to Chongming to inspect the farm and became very interested in our wine. Seeing that we have been working hard to produce wine these years, they decided to invest in it." As a result, Huajianqing's brand building began to take off track. At the beginning of 2022, some liquor distributors also favored and invested in Huajianqing, and Huajianqing's channel sales, especially the supermarket channel, also opened up.
At this point, Hua Jianqing has established three capability centers: research and development, product promotion, and sales, commonly known as the "three carriages". Starting from 2022, Huajian Qing will gradually enter supermarkets of various sizes such as Jiuguang, Hualian, Century Lianhua, RT Mart, and Quanjia.
Hua Jianqing enters the supermarket
"Fruit wine is a niche market, but it is also the most promising category in the wine industry." Yi Xinhua said that compared with other wines, the brewing technology of fruit wine is more difficult. At the same time, the market is full of "fruit juice+Baijiu+mineral water+rock sugar" blended fruit wine, which makes people misunderstand fruit wine. But once the brewing technology is broken through, the advantages of fruit wine will emerge, which not only retain fruit nutrition, but also leave fruit fragrance and flavor.
In recent years, the market for low alcohol, small bottled fruit wine has emerged. Liu Haiqing also has a clear understanding of this trend. "In the field of fruit wine segmentation, we are still in a competitive stage, and no brand has taken the absolute mainstream. However, Huajian Qing, who follows the route of fermented fruit wine, may be at the forefront. We need to seize the opportunity to seize the opportunity and move forward."
Last year, "Huajianqing" also added Chongming rice wine and Chongming sake, which were independently developed.
Taste fruit wine in the paddy field.
Except for cranberries, which are wild fruits from Canada, blackberries are brewed using juicy blackberries from the Greater Khingan Mountains. The fruits used in Huajianqing Brewery are all from Chongming Island, and local fruit farmers are also involved in the winery's production process. In Uncle Haiqing's entrepreneurial map, we need to construct an industrial chain that integrates research and development, raw materials, production, and sales. With the help of fruit wine, Chongming's strawberries, oranges, grapefruits, and Cuiguan pears are brought to the consumer's dining table together. At present, the company has established cooperative relationships with more than 30 Chongming fruit farmers and agricultural cooperatives.
"I have been able to persevere for many years, which is closely related to Huawei's resilience and drive. Looking back on the journey he has gone through, Uncle Haiqing is quite moved. Initially, he was a communication veteran who planted his dream of making wine. Now, his team includes brewing masters who are dedicated to research and development, diligent fruit farmers, and a sales team from the post-90s generation who are rushing to the front line. On weekdays, he travels back and forth in the island's farms, distilleries, urban offices, and supermarkets, pondering iteration and upgrading in the aroma and aroma of wine.".
When he left Huawei back then, Uncle Haiqing placed a small advertisement on his farewell message - "I'm planning to open a farm in Chongming, brothers can go and take a look.". Ten years have passed, and Uncle Haiqing has fulfilled his dream. He not only opened a farm, but also created a pure fruit wine. "Opening a farm is to play with emotions, making wine is my career," he smiled.
