Kweichow Moutai

Baijiu is China’s native liquor. A clear, colorless spirit made from sorghum wheat, it’s used for toasts at banquets, offered as a gift to guests, or simply knocked back over dinner. Kweichow Moutai produces China’s most illustrious baijiu, taking its name from the village that is home to its distillery. Moutai’s stock took a dive in 2013 following President Xi Jinping’s crackdown on lavish government spending. But the company rebounded because Moutai baijiu is as much a cultural product as a physical one. Kweichow Moutai has seen heady growth in more recent years. In 2017, Moutai overtook Diageo to become the world’s most valuable liquor company. Its market cap has ballooned 67% since then, and revenues for the first half of 2018 rocketed 38% year over year, to $4.86 billion.