Moutai bids start low

Guiyang (CNS) -- Bidding will start at about 300,000 yuan (US$ 47,572) on a bottle of Moutai 1958 at an auction for fine mellow liquor to be held on Sunday in Guiyang, capital of Guizhou Province, according to a pre-auction exhibition on Wednesday. While the market price for a same bottle is evaluated at around 550,000 yuan.

Altogether 130 sets of bidding items with 300 bottles of local fine liquor brands will go on the block, the biggest scale of all domestic fine liquor auctions recently scheduled. Among them the Moutai items range across sub-brands that include Chelun, Five Star, Feitian, and Kuihua, all produced from the 1950s to 1990s.

Moutai, known as the Chinese "national wine," is only produced in Maotai Township, Renhuai, Guizhou, and enjoys the same fame as Scotch whiskey and Cognac brandy.

The initial bid for a 12-bottle set of Feitian 2010 also went for a record low at 13,000 yuan (about US$ 2,061), or just a little bit more than 1,000 yuan a bottle, while its price at a local exclusive Moutai store is labeled 1,519 yuan a bottle.