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| ▲ Sogyeri 595 / CEO Hong Jeong-sul | ||
Yeongdong County, North Chungcheong Province, is famous for a variety of fruits thanks to abundant sunlight, severe daily temperature range and excellently drainable soil. Fruits grown and harvested here are sweeter and fresher than other regions as those who tasted it often praise.
Among many fruits, grapes especially is popular and the kinds also are many from Campbell early to shinesmerket and chungrang. Naturally, wine business has been booming in the county earning the title 'the Kingdom of Grapes'.
Sogyeri 595
Located in the country, Sogyeri 595 is a South Korean wine maker respected for its history and quality. The company won the gold prize at the Korea Wine Awards and the gold and silver at the Wine Show.
Recently, Sogyeri 595 is attracting a great attention on releasing wines made of wild grapes and apple in addition to the existing excellent wine made with Campbell early. Campbell early is the most beloved grapes for the feel of light body but rich flavor. It is especially loved by Koreans as it goes perfectly with Korean food according to Hong Jeong-sul, CEO of Sogyeri 595.
The initial 1,000 bottles of wine produced as soon as Hong started to run the business were sold out in record high speed. Surprised by this, Hong brought his brainchild to the Wine Show and won the gold and silver prizes at the same time for excellent quality and taste credited by the judges.
Gwangmyeong Wine Cave CEO Choi Jeong-wook praised "Sogyeri 595 wines have unique taste and are especially good to go with seafood." And this was no vain praise as they were received excellently by chefs and visitors alike at the Seoul International Wines & Spirits Expo held in COEX Seoul and BEXCO Busan.
Apple wine, wild grape wine
Sogyeri 595's apple wine and wild grape wine are soon to release on the market. Apple wine is excellent in smell and flavor as well as clean taste as it is made with royal apple. Wild grape wine, on the other hand, is received highly from Korean chefs and sommeliers for balanced mix of sweetness and sourness.
Some wine experts point out wild grape wine as to compete with world wind shoulder to shoulder. For this reason, Hong is to give more effort in promoting wild grape wine this year.
It is notable that Hong never uses any chemical substances including the fertilizer in order to make the very naturally tastes and quality of wines.
"Eco-friendliness is my farming philosophy. Although the size of fruits are small because of organic growing, the sweetness, freshness and taste are just the best you can possibly imagine a wine should be."
Quality grapes make quality wine. Yeongdong County is known to be the best quality grape growing region in South Korea and Hong is determined to use this advantage to spread excellence of Korean wines to the world.
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