[Distribution Hot People] "Top Pick Wine, Will Be an Opportunity to Find Your Own Taste"

Myeong Yong-jin, E-Mart Alcohol Buyer

Wine Popularization Project 'Top Pick Wine' Planning
Wines Selected Through Sommelier Blind Tasting
"Will Continue Curations with Various Themes"

"Top Pick Wine is a curated product designed to ease the concerns of consumers who have difficulty choosing wine. We hope that Top Pick Wine will serve as a guide for many people in finding wines that suit their taste."

Myung Yong-jin, Liquor Buyer at E-Mart

Myung Yong-jin, a liquor buyer at E-Mart, said in an interview with Asia Economy on the 27th that 'Top Pick Wine' is a project planned to offer a list of wines verified solely by taste by experts to consumers at reasonable prices.

Top Pick Wine is a wine popularization project planned as a follow-up to the 'National Wine' project that E-Mart conducted for about two years starting in August 2018. Top Pick Wine selects dozens of wines submitted by various importers according to criteria presented by E-Mart by theme, through blind tastings by professional sommeliers. The goal is to purchase wines priced between 30,000 and 50,000 KRW in the market in bulk and offer them at around 20,000 KRW.

Buyer Myung explained, "Some say the domestic wine market has entered a mature phase, but E-Mart still sees it as a growth phase," adding, "The project was planned with the intention of developing wines that can serve as a guide through curation for many people who have difficulty choosing wine."

When planning this project, Buyer Myung focused on discovering high-quality wines that can satisfy customers' increasingly sophisticated tastes. To this end, a differentiating factor was added to the blind tasting process, which is to include wines with proven brand power in the domestic market in the evaluation. He said, "For example, in the case of Chilean wines, wines such as 'Montes Alpha' or '1865,' which are considered representative brands, are included in the evaluation," emphasizing, "If the wines under evaluation receive better results than the existing representative wines in quality assessment, we believe they can secure sufficient market competitiveness."

In addition, wines previously selected as National Wines will also be included in the evaluation for re-assessment. Buyer Myung said, "Because the taste of wine changes depending on the vintage, I thought it was necessary to re-evaluate the National Wines conducted a few years ago," adding, "If the quality is still maintained and competitive through the evaluation, they may be re-released in the market."

Top Pick Wine plans to gradually approach consumers with more segmented themes, starting with the first theme of European wines. Buyer Myung stated, "We plan to propose wines selected strictly by taste by experts across various countries, varieties, and themes," expressing, "Through the wines presented by Top Pick Wine, we will conduct high-quality curation so that consumers can find wines that suit them and upgrade their taste."