Solsongju

Rice winery & distillery, Hamyang, KR

Solsongju is among the most storied rice wines of Korea. The recipe comes from the head house of the Hadong Jeong clan, the family of the scholar Jeong Yeo-chang (1450–1504), one of the five great sages of Korean Confucianism, where it was handed down for some 500 years as gayangju, the rice wine of the house. Today it is protected as Intangible Cultural Heritage of South Gyeongsang Province, and in 2007 it was served as the official rice wine of the inter-Korean summit.

Hamyang

a village that has kept 600 years

The Jeong family's scholars' village in Hamyang has stood for around 600 years, with traditional hanok houses, old walls and the Confucian academy Namgye Seowon, now a UNESCO World Heritage site. Here the rice wine of the house was never merely a drink: it belonged to hospitality and to the family's ancestral rites, and so it was guarded across generations with the same care as the house itself.

Jirisan

the power of the mountain and its pines

Hamyang lies at the foot of Jirisan, one of Korea's sacred mountains. In its old forests grow Korean red pines (Pinus densiflora), slowly, shaped by altitude and cold winters, and therefore rich in terpenes and phytoncides, the aromatic compounds that give Solsongju its clear, cool forest scent. Add to this spring water filtered through Jirisan's granite, among the purest brewing waters in Korea. The cool mountain climate slows fermentation, and harmonises in a special way with songsun, the young pine shoots considered exceptionally difficult to work with.

Songsun

the difficult beauty of young shoots

Alongside pine needles, the house uses songsun: the young pine shoots of spring. They are rich in tannins and demand great skill. Wrongly dosed, they tip into bitterness. Handled well, they give the rice wine exactly what makes it unmistakable: freshness, tension and a cool, faintly resinous finish that lingers.

Park Heung-seon

a story nearly lost

That Solsongju still exists today is the achievement of Park Heung-seon, Korea Food Master No. 27. She married into the Jeong family and took over the house recipe at a time when Korea's brewing tradition had been all but extinguished by the prohibitions of the 20th century. Through decades of work she revived the recipe, secured it and carried it to official recognition, an almost broken story that is being told again today.

Solsongju

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Solsongju

Solsongju is fermented three times and refined with young pine needles.

Damsoul is its distilled expression | clear, aromatic and deeply rooted in the Korean distilling tradition.