Wine’s growth is fine, but whiskey tumbling

More and more Koreans are putting down the whiskey and picking up “drops from God.”
While consumption of high-alcohol liquors dropped last year, consumption of wine ― especially from Chile and France ― is up 60 percent since 2002, according to data from the National Tax Service.
Consumption of soju, Korea’s traditional distilled liquor, increased 3.2 percent to 959,000 kiloliters (250 million gallons), and the amount of beer sold rose by 2.2 percent to 1.9 million kiloliters.
But sales of whiskey and other foreign liquors declined by about 3 percent to 33,000 kiloliters, continuing a steady sales downturn from 45,000 kiloliters in 2002. “Consumption of high-priced whiskey shrank amid the economic slowdown,” the tax agency said in a statement.
Consumers also showed an increasing appetite for makgeolli, a traditional rice wine with a milky, off-white color. Makgeolli, considered the most common drink among rural area farmers, has gotten more popular among urban consumers as well, lately. Korean makgeolli makers recently developed a variety of ingredients and flavors, such as green tea or ginseng, and sell the drink with more sophisticated packaging.
Wine, however, fueled the growth of Korea’s liquor market last year. Koreans drank 27,000 kiloliters of wine last year, up 8 percent from 25,000 kiloliters in 2005 and nearly 60 percent compared to 17,400 kiloliters in 2002.
Wine, once enjoyed by a few rich connoisseurs here, has become widely accepted in recent years, partly because of a mega-hit Japanese comic series called “Les Gouttes de Dieu,” or “Drops from God.” The comics, about one man’s quest for the best wine, has ignited a new passion, especially among Korean businessmen with a firmly established habit of downing bottles of soju or whiskey during after-hours drinking binges.
Imported wines now account for 80 percent of all wine sales within the country, from slightly above 60 percent in 2002. And wine imports from Chile, whose free trade agreement with Korea took effect in 2004, increased from $3 million in 2003 to more than $15 million in 2006, according to data from the Korea Agro-Fisheries Trade Corp.

By Jung Ha-won Staff Writer [hawon@joongang.co.kr]