From the mountains of Sichuan in the west to the coastal hills of Shandong in the east and Fujian in the south, China’s drinks industry is quietly at work producing the first trickles of what promoters hope will become a torrent of a fortified spirit that the country has long consumed but historically not made at home: whisky.
Industry giants like Pernod Ricard and Diageo have opened new distilleries in China, pledging combined investment approaching USD 300 million, while domestic players like Tsingtao Brewery and Bacchus Liquor are in on the act. Independent startup Nine Rivers in Longyan, a two-hour drive from the southern port city of Xiamen, is the latest entrant targeting one of the fastest-growing alcohol segments in the country of 1.4 billion.
In China, sales of whisky are dwarfed by those of fiery local liquor baijiu. But despite concerns about depressed consumer spending in a now comparatively sluggish economy, whisky revenue surged by nearly a third from 2020 to 2024, reaching RMB 15 billion (USD 2.1 billion), while baijiu and other spirits sales grew a modest 11% over the same period, according to data from consultancy Euromonitor International.
While China has forged ahead of much of the rest of the world in tech-based products like smartphones and electric vehicles, recent consumer product successes like Pop Mart’s Labubu dolls and coffee chain Luckin Coffee show it has also made progress in penetrating global markets for goods beyond the tech field. Whether Chinese whisky can make a similar leap remains open to question.
Underlining domestic demand for whisky from what observers say is a younger clientele, the Edinburgh-based Scotch Whisky Association said volume shipments of Scotch to China surged by nearly 80% between 2019–2023. China ranks tenth in the world in imports of Scotch by volume and value, far below the leaders India, by volume, and the US, by value.
“Chinese whisky is gaining momentum, and 2024 was a landmark year,” said Shirley Zhu, research director at UK-based drinks data provider IWSR. “A wave of new distilleries has reached the stage where they can release higher-quality products, and that’s helping build real consumer interest.
“At the same time, the category is still very young. Most producers have very limited or zero-aged stock. It will take time before Chinese distilleries develop the depth, consistency, and distinctive styles seen in long-established whisky regions, Zhu told Nikkei Asia. “Regulatory frameworks and category definitions are also still evolving, which adds another layer of complexity.”
The emerging Chinese companies might be considered late to the whisky-making party in Asia. Producers across the region, from India to Japan have been distilling for decades, joined more recently by producers in Thailand and elsewhere in Southeast Asia. Japanese whiskies have become among the most sought after in cocktail bars around the world.
Grand View Research estimates the global market for all types of whisky was worth USD 78 billion in 2025, and projects it will grow to USD 116 billion by 2033.
Buzz about the prospects for Chinese whisky isn’t hard to find. In a recent review of newly released whiskies from Bacchus Liquor’s Laizhou distillery in Sichuan, Australian whisky writer Nath Martyn, who writes as “The Whisky Scribe,” was said to be impressed.
“Laizhou Distillery has only just begun, yet they’re already producing whisky of impressive quality,” Martyn wrote. “What struck me most was that these whiskies didn’t feel like ‘good first attempts’—they felt mature, confident, and well-crafted. If Laizhou represents the future of Chinese whisky, that future looks very exciting indeed.”
Still, the emerging whisky industry faces some big headwinds at home.
A property downturn that has dragged on for years and high youth unemployment rates have prompted people to cut back on spending, a trend known as “consumption downgrade.” In May 2025, China announced regulations banning government party members and civil servants from drinking alcohol at public receptions, which has dented sales.
Last November, IWSR lowered its forecast for global beverage alcohol sales in 2025 from a 0.5% decline to a 0.7% drop in value terms, citing “economic and political pressures in the US and China.” Baijiu makers have been hit hard but foreign producers are no exception, with Pernod Ricard reporting a 27% year-on-year sales decline in China for the July-September quarter. “We remain cautious on the demand environment” ahead of the Lunar New Year, a key consumer spending period, the company said in a news release.
Meanwhile western drinks makers have halted production in some plants as demand softens with the passing of the Covid-19 crisis that boosted home consumption.
For some, looking further ahead, the potential for Chinese whisky to become popular overseas is genuine.
“The export prospects for homegrown whisky are promising, albeit with challenges to overcome,” said Marta Zhang, senior food and drink analyst at research firm Mintel China. “The trend of Chinese brands ‘going global’ has become increasingly prominent in the alcoholic beverage industry, as companies seek to boost their international presence through cultural export and product innovation.”
Back in Longyan, excitement about Chinese whisky was visible—and audible—during a recent tour by enthusiasts of the Nine Rivers distillery, which began operations in October and takes its name from the nine springs that run through the mountains surrounding the area. Founded by UK native Jay Robertson, its chief executive, Nine Rivers traces its roots back to gatherings of whisky enthusiasts in Shenzhen in 2016.
As Robertson guided a group on a tour across the site, the crowd cheered on as a woman climbed a ladder and poured a bucket of liquid yeast into a giant fermentation tank. In another building the sound of machines cleaning milled malt roared.
The malt will be fermented, distilled and stored in casks for about three years—the minimum period required to officially be qualified as single malt whisky in China—before being bottled and launched on the market. The still house, containing stills imported from Scotland, where distillation takes place, had a large open space for future expansion, underscoring Nine Rivers’ ambitions.
As of November 2025, the plant had finished filling up only about 150 casks, but Robertson now believes it could become one of the largest distilleries in the world.
“At first, it was supposed to be much smaller at 3,000 LPA (liters of pure alcohol),” Robertson told Nikkei. But he said living through the Covid-19 pandemic and China’s volatile trade tensions with the US turbocharged his ambitions. “We thought, if something like [Covid-19] or a trade war happens again, we should have the capacity to ramp up production quickly”. Now, his goal is 7.5 million LPA per year.
“We have invested about USD 12 million so far,” said Robertson, who estimates the total project to cost less than USD 20 million. The big investment gap between Nine Rivers and the multinationals comes down to cost effectiveness, he said. The brick-walled buildings, for example, “have a lot of character but are ridiculously cheap.” Its cask warehouse has a high ceiling to keep the room cool even with the region’s warm weather.
Nine Rivers’ operation currently spans three buildings, but it plans to expand that number to 22. The company also plans to produce its own casks, which it currently imports from bourbon distilleries Jim Beam and Maker’s Mark. There are even plans to grow its own malt.
Robertson said he and other board members funded 60% of the project, while about 320 people chipped in the rest, some as little as USD 1,000. Among the list of backers is former mixed martial arts fighter Urijah Faber, who now trains fighters in China among other projects. Robertson predicted revenue will start to flow into the business once it begins selling whisky after three years of maturation, without saying exactly when Nine Rivers might break even.
Robertson believes it is only a matter of time before made-in-China whisky gains global status. “China has changed so much. Foreign products used to be the gold standard but EVs, smartphone technology … now China is leading the world in all of these industries,” he said. As a corollary, China-made wine has been shaking up the industry in recent years, with producers from the northern Ningxia region winning international awards.
In China itself, whisky has yet to replace baijiu, made from sorghum, as the drink of choice at banquets, family gatherings and business dinners. It still dominated China’s RMB 1.2 trillion (USD 168 billion) spirits market in 2024, with a market share of about 93%, according to Euromonitor.
But that figure has been slowly declining as its alcohol content of more than 50% by volume, coupled with its strong flavor, struggles to appeal to younger consumers. A survey conducted by Wuliangye, one of the top baijiu makers, showed that only 19% of respondents aged 20–35 liked baijiu, while the figure was 52% for beer and 29% for imported spirits and fruit wines, according to local media reports.
“The older generation prefer baijiu because it’s deeply rooted in their culture,” said Jennifer Song, senior equity analyst at Morningstar. “The younger generation have a very diversified preference. The demographic change will favor whisky as well as other categories like brandy and wine.”
Whisky accounted for just 1.2% of the total spirits market in 2024. But sales rose 31% from 2020 and companies are betting that it will continue chipping away at baijiu’s dominance.
Pernod Ricard, the French spirits maker behind brands like Jameson and Chivas Regal, is doing its part to make that happen. It invested USD 150 million in a distillery in the mountains in Sichuan province, and released The Chuan, its first Chinese whisky, in late 2023. It is currently sold at around RMB 500 (USD 70) on online shopping platforms in China.
UK rival Diageo, the maker of Johnnie Walker, is investing USD 120 million in a distillery in Yunnan which began production in March 2024. French luxury powerhouse LVMH owns a winery in Yunnan, but has not so far ventured into whisky production.
At home, Bacchus Liquor boasts one of China’s largest distilleries in Qionglai, Sichuan, which kicked off production in 2021. Beer maker Tsingtao Brewery is reportedly building a factory that includes whisky production capabilities. Even baijiu makers themselves are diversifying into the whisky business. Langjiu, based in Sichuan, broke ground on a whisky distillery in Emeishan last year.
At the Nine Rivers distillery tour, visitors asked about the prospects for whisky in China were mostly upbeat.
“Import tariffs on whisky are very high, so ‘made-in-China’ should be a good business,” said a visitor from Australia who gave his name as Tony and is an investor in the project as well as a friend of one of the board members. China raised import tariffs on whisky, brandy and other spirits at the start of last year, and then further slapped anti-dumping duties on brandy from the European Union.
Away from Longyan, alcohol industry workers and consumers said the growth in appetite for whisky was notable.
“I think the popularity of whisky is similar to what happened with coffee in the past, where the younger generation acquired a taste for imported products,” said Xu, who gave only his surname and works at a whisky distribution company in the eastern city of Suzhou. “Since the ABV (alcohol by volume) is quite high, people in their 20s and 30s like to add ice or even green tea or English tea.”
Still, Xu said it was too early to tell whether homegrown brands will be able to compete seriously with foreign products. His views were echoed by Yang, a 40-year-old office worker in Shanghai who drinks frequently with friends at bars and at home. She has tried some homegrown whisky brands, like Laizhou and Goalang in Hunan, but said she wasn’t impressed.
“They don’t have complex layers and the body is lighter,” she said. “Domestic whisky is still under development. They are fine for beginners and some brands offer decent value for money. But for enthusiasts, Scotch is still the preferred choice.”
Yuan Heng, an employee at Shanghai-based imported whisky retailer Fengxun, said tariffs on Irish whiskey imports are nearly 63%. But despite having much lower taxes, she says made-in-China whisky does not offer a major price advantage at the moment. “Most still cost RMB 500–800 (USD 70–112) per bottle,” she said. “It could be because they are still relying on imports for base liquor.”
How quickly whisky can increase its market share—just 1.2% of total spirits sales in China in 2024, according to Euromonitor—is also uncertain. Baijiu makers are racing to catch up with changing consumer tastes, with major producers beginning the rolling out of baijiu with lower alcohol content. Morningstar analyst Song said that while many producers are state-owned and are slow to change, some brands, like Sichuan’s Luzhou Laojiao, have done well with light-flavored baijiu.
“Even with whisky growing fast, we think that the category will remain below 5% of overall spirits sales until 2030,” she said.
At UK-based IWSR, Research Director Zhu predicted shelf space for made-in-China whisky will become more crowded, and consumers may gravitate toward brands or companies they already know as they start exploring Chinese whiskies.
“Independents will need to be very clear about what makes them different, whether that’s terroir-driven production, local ingredients, distinctive maturation process, or a strong local brand identity,” said Zhu.
Entertaining visitors at the Longyan distillery tour, ebullient Nine Rivers CEO Robertson remained unfazed and full of ideas.
“We’ve got lots of things on the side,” he said, indicating that the company plans to launch a wide range of products. “We would have the capacity for the big players to do some production here, and a lot of private labels” developed in collaboration with celebrities—a widespread trend in the drinks world, with products from US rapper Jay-Z’s Armand de Brignac champagne, jointly owned with LVMH, to Portuguese soccer manager Jose Mourinho’s “The Special One” red wine.
Just days back from a trip to the US aiming to negotiate deals, Robertson was busy pitching to potential investors on the distillery tour, calling above the din: “Do you want some more drinks?”
This article first appeared on Nikkei Asia. It has been republished here as part of 36Kr’s ongoing partnership with Nikkei.