The answer is simple- because that’s what you suckers are willing to pay!  Or at least that is what I would like to say sometimes…

The real answer thought is a bit more complicated however.  For true wine lovers living in Korea, finding a decent bottle of wine for a decent price here can be like trying to find an “ajashi” that doesn’t spit.  As you browse through the wine section of the supermarkets in Seoul, it might appear at first glance that all the wines are high in quality since the prices are so high.  But take a closer look- most of the wines are “table wines” or “3 buck chuck” as we call it at home.

Unfortunately however, by the time this stuff has made it to Korea, you have to wonder is something besides grape juice in that bottle.  So what’s happening here?  Is there an evil conspiracy by the Korean government to horde all the good wines in Korea and force us all to drink “plonk”?  Well perhaps it’s not evil, but this is actually closer to the truth than you might think.  The fact is that the various taxes that wine importers have to pay on each bottle adds up to about 60% of the invoice value.  Add to that quarantine costs, labeling costs, and a slew of other little goodies that the Korean government has thought up, not to mention shipping costs, and those costs add up to about 300% added to the invoice value. 

As a result, wine importers have to find wines that are very cheap in the first place to keep costs down.  But the fun doesn’t stop there- by the time Korean importers get the wines, it has already gone through several levels of distribution at the point of origin, so this tax is calculated from an already inflated price.  Then the price goes up yet again when it’s sold to the supermarket or wine shop.  So by the time we get the wine from the store, a bottle of wine that might have started at just 1,000 Won in Italy for example, could be 20,000 Won or more! 

So until more direct wine importers (winemakers that import directly from the vineyards) make their way into Korea, what’s the best way to get a decent bottle for a decent price in Korea?  Keep the number of your wine mule!