Kim calls Korea’s national spirit “the most fascinating subject few know about.”
In the early 2000s, Kyungmoon Kim taught wine tasting courses on South Korean warships. Kim had moved to the USA from Korea as a teenager and attended the Culinary Institute of America. There, while his classmates excelled in kitchen experience from restaurants, he shined in wine classes. Encouraged, he completed three levels of certification from the Wine & Spirit Education Trust and passed the introductory and certification exams of the Court of Master Sommeliers. Then, he was conscripted to serve in the South Korean navy.
“I was confined to a base for two years, but I was determined to keep learning,” he says. None of the wines in his curriculum were available on the base, so he studied without tasting. He managed to win a sommelier competition in Seoul, and he began sharing his knowledge by offering seminars throughout the fleet. All the while, he was building the wine list for his CIA classmate Jungsik Yim’s first restaurant in Seoul, and upon his discharge, Kim began working there. When Yim opened Jungsik in New York City in 2011, Kim also built that list.
Kim was excited about pairing wine with Korean cuisine. “We had nearly a thousand labels,” he says. But what he didn’t expect was the interest of New Yorkers in Korean beverages. In other bars in Koreatown, the drink of choice was “green bottles” of Soju, an industrially produced spirit made from starches and additives. “I couldn’t find anything I could be proud to offer,” he says. “But it stayed in the back of my mind.”
In 2016, while working at The Modern, Kim passed the Court’s Master Sommelier exam, the most demanding wine exam. “I thought, ‘Now the world will open up for me,'” he recalls.
It didn’t. He spent a year consulting for Dragonback Estate, a membership wine cellar, in Argentina. He considered opening his own restaurant. “Then the light bulb went on,” he says. Many of the restaurant owners he knew had a need for a craft Korean beverage. So Kim boarded a plane to Korea to find out what small rice distilleries were producing.
Koreans have been brewing Cheongju – rice wine – for 2,000 years and distilling it into spirits called Soju since the 13th century. But in the 20th century, Japanese occupation and the Korean War left the country impoverished, and the rice available had to be used for food. Brewing and distilling rice were banned. Small businesses closed; larger ones turned to other grains, tapioca, or sweet potatoes as bases for their drinks. This lasted almost half a century. But when Kim returned to Korea, he learned that a Soju renaissance was underway. The government had lifted the ban on rice distillation in the 1990s and eventually bestowed the title of Intangible Cultural Heritage on some producers. Craft Soju was back. “When I tasted it, I was thrilled,” says Kim. “It opened my eyes.”
Unlike the industrial stuff he had seen in New York, the craft Soju Kim tasted was produced in small batches in pot stills and made with a natural yeast starter called Nuruk. Bottled at 20% or 40% alcohol, they offered lush textures and notes of herbs, fruits, and cherry blossoms. But few had tried them, even in Korea. The large, cheap bottles still dominated the market.
Kim decided to help small producers find a market in the United States by acting as an importer. Today, Kim imports Soju, which serves as an elegant substitute for vodka or gin and pairs wonderfully with food. Slowly, they are gaining a following.
“Soju is the most fascinating subject few know about,” says Kim. He is optimistic about its future. “Fifteen years ago, many people didn’t know about Mezcal. Now every restaurant has some from a small village. We’re still taking baby steps with Soju. But we can definitely get the ball rolling.” Find Kyungmoon Kim’s selection at woorisoul.com.
Yangchon Chungju ($30) Made from glutinous rice, this golden rice wine is earthy and viscous, with mushroom, marzipan, and dried pear aromas, as well as a bitter-sweet nut shell taste. Enjoy it with Korean barbecue.
Solsongju Damsoul Pine Soju ($26) Enriched with pine and fir wood, valued in Korea, and diluted with fir tea, this herbal Soju is a great substitute for gin. Kim likes to stir it with Campari and Yangchon Chungju for a Korean Negroni.
Sulseam Mir Soju ($30) Made only with water, Nuruk, and rice from Gyeonggi Province, this double-distilled spirit has an aroma of roasted corn and a milky sweetness with fresh notes of pineapple and hops. It’s wonderful on the rocks.
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