'Wine isn't complicated'

By Chung Hyun-chae

For business people, wine has increasingly become a great companion. As more Koreans opt for a glass instead of mixing beer and soju at important bonding sessions, business people — from new recruits to senior directors — have developed a keen interest in wine.

As wine drinking in Korea is a relatively recent phenomenon, many still try to learn more about it and drink it in the proper manner. That has also led them to develop some misunderstandings.

In an interview with Business Focus, Eun Kwang-pyo, the owner of the Casa del Vino, a wine bar, and Best Wine, an online wine store, corrects those misperceptions and suggests a few tips on drinking wine with grace and without developing a headache.

Eun is among those who introduced and fostered Korea’s wine drinking culture. He started the professional wine website, Best Wine, in 2000. He provided wine at prices about 30 percent lower than his contemporaries and successfully ran his business. Then he opened a bar named Casa del Vino in 2002. From the beginning, he didn’t view other wine bars as his competition. He thought food which fits well with wine was also important at a wine bar. He sold decent food, not just side dishes such as crackers and cheese.

Casa del Vino is now a rare wine bar that has survived nearly 10 years in Cheongdam, a wealthy district in southern Seoul where businesses come and go alongside the fast changing trends.

Eun’s advice was complemented with that from Kim Young-sim, a wine expert who used to work at one of Korea’s largest wine importer company and now runs European restaurant Gastro Tong.

Is wine complicated?

Due to the fact that it is made of different kinds of grapes from various regions and the quality differs each year, people think it is difficult to develop a good understanding of wine. One survey even showed that CEOs and officer workers become stressed because of their lack of knowledge.

Business people are often under pressure from the expectation that they should know about many wines, but Kim said that they’d be better off learning about one kind.

She recommended that novices choose one sector they are familiar with and focus on the wines within it. If people talk about wine at a dinner table, you don’t need to impress business partners with your knowledge. It is better to say, “I don’t know much about wine,” and try to lead the conversation with your own story of a wine you know well.

Such a humble approach will make the people at the table feel comfortable because not many know about wine well. “It is wise to enjoy wine, not to feel stress. Then the atmosphere becomes more pleasant. You can say that the meeting is at least semi-successful then,” said Kim.

Expensive = high quality?

The formula of high prices guaranteeing high quality applies to most goods, but often not to wine.

Price tags of wine change depending on the condition of crops every year, according to Eun. For example, the Bordeaux crop was quite good in 2009, so people could enjoy it at comparably cheaper prices.

Eun said that prices are also determined by supply and demand in wine markets. Cheap but good wines are generally from New World wine areas such as the United States, Chile, and New Zealand.

Compared to European wines that have a long tradition, those wines have a relatively short history. As history matters in the wine world, the supply of cheap, but good wine with a short history tends to exceed demand.

After all, one’s taste is the most important deciding factor. If a wine doesn’t suit a person’s fancy, it is not good to drink even though it is renowned as a great one. Burgundy is generally known to be the best and some of the greatest wines do come from Burgundy, France. But their vintages are so capricious that people should examine them carefully before buying.

Vintage doesn’t mean good quality

Many people usually think that wines only become more expensive as they age. It is not entirely true. Some old vintage wines are sold for high prices, but they are only limited to items made from good harvest year grapes. That is to say, it is a rarity which improves with age. Cheap wine can easily change in quality as it gets older, so it would be better to uncork it sooner.

Carmen Classic from Chile priced at 20,000 won will retain its taste and flavor for about two years, but you can savor the taste and aroma of Chateau Margaux at over 100.000 won more than 10 years. For reference, experts recommend wine priced at between 30,000 and 50,000 won for business meetings.

White wine for fish, red wine for meat?

Ingredients have nothing to do with matching wine to a meal, Eun said. Cooking methods and sauces used actually decide which wine is best suited to a dish. For example, sweet and sour pork, a Chinese-style fried pork in sweet and sour starchy sauce, goes well with white wine. Hair-tail, or mackerel boiled in spicy sauce, will match a soothing red wine, Eun said.

While wine usually accompanies Western cuisine, typically Italian and French, local experts seek to find the best pairings of Korean food and wine. Eun and Jeannie Cho Lee, Asia’s first Master of Wine, will host a master-class at Bistro Seoul on Oct. 24 titled “Chili, Doenjang, Umami: Pairing Korean Flavors with Wine.” Doenjang is Korea’s traditional fermented soybean paste while umami refers to savory flavors.

In the master-class, Lee will show how three most Korean flavors, chili, doenjang and umami, can interact with wine.