2026 is the Bingwu Year of the Horse on the Chinese lunar calendar. In Chinese culture the horse is the emblem of speed and ambition — “success at the first gallop,” “charging ahead of the pack.” Every idiom carries the hopes people place on a new year. Jiannanchun (Bingwu Horse Year) Zodiac Commemorative Edition pours those hopes into a bottle.
It is a cultural vintage co-created by Jiannanchun and the National Museum of China, inspired by the museum’s treasured “Sui-Dynasty Twelve-Zodiac Bronze Mirror.” The mirror as a token of reflection, the wine as a vessel of wishes — this bottle honors the longevity of time and the triumph of every endeavor.
I. A Mirror Across a Millennium: A National Treasure Meets a Bottle of Wine
“Use a bronze mirror to straighten your robe and cap,” the ancients said. When Sui-dynasty artisans cast this twelve-zodiac bronze mirror, they engraved the zodiac signs and an inscription onto its back, so that the mirror could reflect both a face and the passing years. A thousand years later, Jiannanchun brings that inscription — “May light follow you, may fortune renew each year” — onto the bottle. The relic is no longer a still object in a display case; it becomes a blessing raised in a toast.
This is not a simple pastiche of motifs. Jiannanchun weaves the mirror’s circular form and the rhythm of its zodiac engravings into the bottle design, so that one bottle carries both the beauty of an artifact and the depth of fine wine.
II. The Zodiac in a Bottle: A Modern Rendering of Chinese New Year Customs
The zodiac cycle is one of China’s oldest ways of keeping time. Every twelve years the wheel turns, and each zodiac year carries its own character and blessings — the Horse Year is about motion: move, and the road unfolds before you.
Jiannanchun has turned the zodiac into a series: the Year of the Dragon, the Year of the Snake, and now the Year of the Horse — one edition a year, marking time with wine. This 888ml collector’s bottle carries a triple blessing: in Chinese, “8” sounds like “fa” (prosperity), and three 8s in a row are the luckiest of omens — for your own collection or as a gift.
III. A Wine Vein of a Thousand Years: From Tang-Dynasty Imperial Wine to Today
Jiannanchun’s roots lie in Mianzhu, Sichuan, at the foot of the Jiuding Snow Mountains, where glacial meltwater flows through the town and nurtures one of the finest terroirs on the golden 30th-parallel brewing belt. As early as the Tang Dynasty, the region’s “Jiannan Shaochun” was recorded in the official histories as an imperial tribute wine — the beginning of a wine lineage that has never stopped.
Today’s Horse-Year edition is the contemporary continuation of that lineage — the same land, the same craft, told in a younger voice for a new generation.
IV. Seven Grains, One Cellar: The Patience of an Intangible Heritage Craft
This wine follows the traditional path of strong-aroma baijiu: seven grains — water, sorghum, wheat, rice, glutinous rice, corn and barley — fermented in solid state, distilled slowly, and aged for a long time, to the national standard GB/T 19961 at 52% vol.
Each grain plays its part: sorghum builds the structure, rice brings clarity, glutinous rice adds sweetness, wheat lends the qu aroma of the starter culture. Their aromas fuse and rise in the old cellars to deliver the classic strong-aroma profile — rich, mellow, sweet and harmonious.
V. A Horse-Year Bottle, Three Occasions
Self-Collection in Your Zodiac Year
For those born in the Year of the Horse, raising a glass in your own zodiac year is a ritual worth keeping.
A Gift with Meaning
For elders and honored guests — the National Museum elements and horse-year blessings give the gift cultural weight.
Festive Table
An 888ml bottle takes center stage at reunion dinners, carrying the luckiest of numbers to the whole table.
Nongxiang 52% vol｜888ml collector’s size — for collecting, gifting, and celebration alike.
Interested in tasting or ordering the wines above? WeChat: +86 186 8275 6100 — tell our wine consultant your occasion and preferences.
One toast to enduring years, one toast to every triumph ahead.
