Tourism, cachet win more to wine

Wine aficionados sample the wide range of Dionysian nectar offered at the Pieroth wine tasting at the Seoul Club Saturday night.

Wine, particularly the red variety preferred by true connoisseurs, may not be the ideal beverage for the humid, sultry kind of evening that descended on the Seoul Club during the Pieroth wine tasting this past Saturday. But until recently, it wasn’t the ideal drink for anything in Korea.
“Five years ago was too early in Korea,” said Dan Schulte, president of Pieroth Korea. “Now, Korea is coming to the point where they have the money to enjoy wine.”
And indeed, the flush-faced Pieroth guests seemed to be enjoying it as quickly as possible, despite the heat and the conspicuous shortage of chairs. The wine and cheese tables were placed in front of the windows to the club’s gym, so as visitors nibbled imported Parmigiano cheese and sipped Grimont Pinotage, body-conscious Seoul Club members huffed and puffed away on elliptical machines behind the glass with resolutely distant looks on their faces.
Pieroth is a 330-year-old, family-owned German wine company that exports to 27 countries around the world. Korea is its latest conquest.
“Drinking in Korea is no longer just about getting drunk,” Schulte said. “Koreans are realizing soju isn’t the only option.”
Korea’s ever-widening tourism deficit is partly behind wine’s growing popularity.
“A key factor is that Koreans have started to travel more,” said Schulte. “People need to get out and taste wines from different countries.”
The obsession with luxury goods that currently grips Korea is another major cause of change, said Schulte.

Partygoers drink to each other’s health as dusk falls over Mount Nam. By Richard Scott-Ashe

“Wine is considered a luxury good, something you enjoy when you have a bit of money. It’s not a poor man’s drink,” he said. “Wine is a status symbol, just like the car you drive or the watch on your wrist.”
He added that the people who are largely behind the influx of brands such as Louis Vuitton and Prada have been big influences in his industry. “A lot of the main drivers were women. They’re the ones who can slow down [when drinking],” said Schulte.
Still, men have their place in the market. “Men use expensive wine to show off,” he said.
With such a ritzy image, wine was the ideal drink for the evening, with a jazz band playing from a perch above the swimming pool and the picturesque evening views of Mount Nam from the Seoul Club.
But despite the rapid progression of wine culture in Korea, there is still the chance of getting served a chilled glass of full-bodied red straight from the refrigerator. “I still see expensive wine being drunk in one shot,” said Schulte, shaking his head.

By Richard Scott-Ashe Contributing Writer [richard@joongang.co.kr]