By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter
Wine is in vogue at the moment ― Koreans consumed more than 28,770 liters of imported and some unmonitored local wines last year.
The popular Japanese comic ``Les Gouttes de Dieu'' (Drops of God), has accelerated the sales of wine dramatically, and also contributed to creating a trend of ordering wine at dinner tables and making a toast. Eun Dae-hwan, the sommelier at the Ritz-Carlton Seoul hotel, said ``No one can deny that the book has generated a renewed enthusiasm in wine.''
Eun, however, said wine the drink itself has enough to charm and attract people. ``Wine resembles natural human lives: the younger in vintage it is, the more powerful and strong it tastes while the older it is, the more subtle and deep the flavor gets," he said.
Koreans have become sophisticated and direct in choosing wine, he said. ``They have studied a lot and tried various kinds of wine. They have certain wine lists in their heads and name specific items at dinner tables,'' Eun said.
However, many people still find it quite difficult to choose what to drink depending on the occasion.
``There are tens of thousands of wine. The more you think you have completed a search for a good bottle of wine, another one pops out. It may sound impossible to find a perfect match of red, white, sparkling, crisp as well as various other types of wines with foods in the first place. That's why we call it a marriage,'' Eun said.