The distillery's eponymous and proprietary spirit, Wuliyangye, is a nongxiang (濃香; strong aroma) baijiu made with a mix of five cereal grains: sorghum, rice, glutinous rice, wheat, and corn.

During the Tang dynasty a multiple grain alcohol called "Zhongbijiu" (重碧酒) had some popularity and during the Song dynasty Yao Junyu (姚君玉), a Yibin nobleman, building on the formula for zhongbijiu, developed "Yaozixuequ" (子雪曲), a distilled spirit composed of five grains; sorghum, rice, glutinous rice, wheat, and millet, which saw a great deal of commercial popularity and success.

[7] In the Ming dynasty, the Chen family took over production of yaozixuequ and in 1368 built fermentation pits that continue to be in use to this day.

The Chen family also altered the recipe setting the baseline for the spirit that would come to be known as Wuliangye however, it wasn't until 1909, the very tail end of the Qing dynasty, that a scholar at a Yibin banquet named Yang Huiquan (杨惠泉) gave the spirit its current name.

[3][8][9] In 1950, the newly formed People's Republic merged eight Yibin distilleries under a single state owned entity and in 1959 this company was named Wuliyangye after the spirit itself.