Friendship First
Aged baijiu for a new head of China business
The ask
We just hired a new head of our China business. She played table tennis in college and plays most weekends. Her first big evening is hosting the chairman of our partner, a privately owned company, and his team for dinner when they visit us in January. I'd like her to pour something worthy. Around $16,500.
The gift
Three bottles of Kweichow Moutai 30 Year Old, the maker's aged expression of the baijiu poured at Chinese state banquets, made from sorghum steamed nine times, fermented eight times and distilled seven. The everyday bottle on banquet tables pours clear; this one pours a light gold. A licensed partner delivers the three to her office, and we add twelve small baijiu cups for the table.
Why it's extraordinary
In April 1971 an American table-tennis team crossed into China and met Zhou Enlai in the Great Hall of the People. Ten months later he toasted Nixon in that hall with the same spirit. Her sport went in ahead of the president.
The moment
At the January dinner she fills the cup of their chairman before her own and stands for the first toast, as a good host does.
A curator replies within one business day.
