Wineries visit Korea to teach customers about their products

 

Winemakers share tips on tasting and food pairings with connoisseurs in Seoul

Dec 03,2015

	Chef Jeff Mosher from the Robert Mondavi winery in Napa Valley, California, plates his dishes at the Conrad Hotel Seoul in Yeouido, western Seoul, for an event to showcase food that goes well with wines from his company. [SHINDONG WINE]

The fall harvest season has wrapped up in the northern hemisphere, but many wine producers are still busy as it is time for them to hit the road to promote their products around the world.

Many have planned visits to Korea in order to diversify their target sales market, even though Korea is considered a relatively smaller wine market.

These visits from well-known wineries from all across the globe are being highly welcomed by local consumers, as they get a chance to meet the owner or the family that operates the wineries, who are difficult to meet otherwise, as well as having the chance to learn how to better enjoy various types of wine.

	Some of the dishes Mosher served at the dinner on Tuesday last week. [SHINDONG WINE]

Considering the heightened interest of their customers in Korea, the family that owns the Italian winery Gaja always comes prepared with a lengthy seminar. Along with allowing visitors to taste different wines, the winery provides a detailed explanation on the flavor of each wine, in the broader context of how the climate and the soil composition affects the taste.

To Gaia Gaja, the eldest daughter of the Gaja family who visited Korea this week, sharing what she knows about her wine with other wine aficionados is important.

“You can get all the information on the web about how long a certain wine is fermented for, or you can taste on your own to feel if the wine includes a hint of raspberry or oak taste, so I’m not here to tell you those,” she said.

“I want to get people to know more stories behind the bottle they are about to enjoy at dinner, things that can only come from the winemakers, such as how recent climate change has put us put more attention on keeping the grapes from ripening too early.”

This year, she arranged for a comparative tasting, inviting her guests to wine and dine on Monday night to taste different vintages of the same wine label. She suggested this method as one way to train your palette to remember the characteristics of different wines.

“You can do the tasting of different varieties from the same vintage, or the same of vintage different producers, or same the variety from different parts of the world,” said she, adding that it is also a good idea to cover the label to do a blind tasting.

	Gaia Gaja, the eldest daughter of the family that owns the Italian winery Gaja, gives a seminar on the characteristics of her wines at the Lotte Hotel in Seoul on Monday. [SHINDONG WINE]

“Personally, I like to do it, because then I focus only on the taste itself, so it helps me remember the particular taste so that the next time I taste something the same or similar, I can easily understand the taste of what I drink.”

Winemakers from elsewhere in Europe are also trying to expand in the Korean market. A Portuguese fortified wine producer called Taylor’s recently sent its global marketing director to Korea. The stronger but sweeter wine has brought attention to Portugal as a winemaking country.

	Gaja’s best-selling wines include its most popular Barbaresco, left, which is made with a varieties of grapes called Nebiolo and Barbara, and Sugarille, made with Sangiovese grapes. [SHINDONG WINE]

Today, Nick Heath will meet with local media to explain further about what port wine is and how to match the particular beverage with food. The director will bring out five different types of port wine and matching it with different types of desserts, including an apple tart with caramel gelato and a dark chocolate tart garnished by raspberries.

While some winemakers visit other countries themselves or send their marketing representatives, some wineries take a different approach by sending their chefs.

Chef Jeff Mosher from the Robert Mondavi Winery in Napa Valley, California, is a frequent visitor to Korea. He made his third visit to Korea last month to become better acquainted with fans of the winery and how the wine can supplement their everyday meals in Korea. He presented his own dishes last week at a dinner.

“Different from many chefs who cook food and then think about what drinks to match with, I create dishes that can accentuate the wine at its best,” the chef explained.

He is also very interested in learning more about the ingredients used in Korean cooking, and how different dishes are made.

Mosher, along with his team, has already tried making kimchi, and recalled that it tasted pretty good for a first try. But he thought there may be ways to improve from his last kimchi attempt, and requested to see where the ingredients come from and the process of kimchi-making.

So before his dinner event, he traveled out to Gimpo, Gyeonggi, on a weekend to see how agricultural products are turned into kimchi. While visiting the farm, Mosher got to harvest the cabbages that he would use to make kimchi, as well as pick the radishes that would become part of the spicy sauce.

“I try to incorporate different flavors in dishes I make in the kitchen because I like the idea of fermentation,” he said, adding that his experience in Korea might inspire him to use ingredients used in kimchi in future culinary creations.

He did pick up some homemade deonjang, or soy bean paste, and gochujang, or spicy pepper paste, to bring back to the winery so he can research ways to add a Korean touch to the cuisine that goes well with Mondavi wines.

 

 

출처; 중앙데일리