Lay Mau (1941-1951)

In 1951, the Chinese government decided to produce Kweichow Moutai on a large scale to increase revenue for the country. To achieve this the 3 leading distilleries Chengyi (founded in 1863, brand Hua Moutai), Ronghe (founded in 1879, brand Wang Moutai) and Hengxing (founded in 1929 as Hengchang) merged into Kweichow Moutai Factory, a state-owned enterprise owned by the newly formed Communist government.

Hengchang, founded by Zhou Bingheng, was sold to Lai Yongchu from Guiyang in 1941 whom renamed it Hengxing and from then the wealthy Lai family, along with the Hu and Wang families, dominated the market in Maotai town. The brand name for Hengxing's moutai became Lay Mau Moutai, with its trademark, designed by Hu Wensei, depicting the mythical bird Roc. In 1943 Hu Wensui opened Shilun Printing Factory in Guiyang where all labels of Lay Mau were printed.

Lay Mau became very sought after, in January 1946 a single bottle cost as much as 1 million Yuan (in counterfeit currency); by November the price stabilized to 25000 Yuan. In 1947 the distillery produced about 32.500 kg Lay Mau.

In November 1951 the Renhuai County Monopoly Bureau redeemed Chengyi and immediately established the Guizhou Monopoly Company Renhuai Maotai Distillery, to which Ronghe was added in October 1952 (after the distillery was confiscated from the Wang family) and in February 1953 Hengxing was also taken over by the Maotai Distillery.

Nowadays only a handful of bottles Lay Mau are left; in China itself there are just 6 bottles left, 3 of which empty. The most expensive Lay Mau, a 1/2 bottle, was auctioned in 2011 for RMB 10.7 million and bought by Mr. Lai from Ningde, China.