Seoul festival draws record 142 producers of traditional Korean drinks

South Korea’s largest festival for traditional alcoholic drinks opened Friday in Seoul with a record 142 producers, as the government looks to turn growing interest in Korean food into overseas sales of rice wine, fruit wine and distilled spirits.

The three-day festival runs through Sunday at the aT Center in Yangjae, southern Seoul. Now in its 16th year, it features tastings, classes and seminars for producers looking to sell abroad. South Korea’s Agriculture Ministry expects about 30,000 visitors, up from 28,000 last year, when 120 producers took part.

Visitors can make makgeolli, a cloudy Korean rice wine, try cocktails made with traditional drinks and sample them alongside Korean dishes and desserts. A section modeled on a Korean bar pairs cocktails with desserts. Other attractions include an artificial intelligence sommelier that suggests drinks based on visitors’ tastes and a blind tasting in which participants try to identify the winner of this year’s presidential award.

The ministry presented awards to 18 drinks at the opening ceremony. Blue Wine Company, based in Yeongdong, North Chungcheong Province, took the top honor for Berry Wine 1168CS, a fruit wine. Other winners included makgeolli, clear rice wine and distilled spirits.

Jin Kyung-sook, the company’s deputy head, said it was the first producer in Yeongdong County to win the presidential award. She said the recognition showed that a sweet wine could appeal to a broad audience.

Douglas Passos, 29, a visitor from Mexico, took part in a makgeolli workshop and learned how rice ferments with nuruk, a traditional Korean fermentation starter. He told the ministry he wanted to introduce the drink to friends when he returned home.

The festival also offers seminars on selling traditional drinks abroad as well as consultations on production techniques and exports. Agriculture Minister Song Mi-ryung met with producers after the opening ceremony to discuss how they could reach more overseas buyers.

Song said the government would help producers source high-quality ingredients, find distributors abroad and test demand in new markets. She pointed to Korean food's growing international popularity as an opportunity for the drinks industry. The ministry also honored Kooksoondang for its work in expanding overseas sales. The makgeolli producer's exports totaled $46.15 million over the past five years.