Baekwha Soobok, a cheong-ju (Korean rice "wine") produced by the giant Lotte's Liquor Beverage Group. Not too much information out there about this particular offering, except that it's been made by traditional methods for some 65 years. I might guess then that this is a pure-rice brew, but hard to tell - usually reserved for the premium brews, which this is not. The nose is lightly earthy and sweet, flowers, sour melon, and cinnamon. On the palate, it's ripe, melon - not quite ferment-y, but on the verge. Quite soft and round, light on the acidity, and despite only 14% abv, a surprising bit of heat on the back end.
After drinking so much sake, it's interesting to drink some basic cheong-ju, though I'm more familiar with the highly refined Gyeong-ju beobju, which I find is easily a match for premium sake. Nonetheless, in comparing Naju to Nashi (pears), this is much more palatable than the equivalent from the likes of Gekkeikan, Hakutsuru, and Shirayuki, and more reliable across a span of temperatures.
So what then are the differences in brewing for sake and cheong-ju? On the whole, they are substantially similar, but, of course, with some key differences. Both involve milling of rice, though on the whole, Japanese sake rice is milled more than its Korean counterpart, which also seems to rely less on specialized rice varietals. Cheong-ju also incorporates much longer rice soaking times, as well as a shorter brewing process (in part explaining the lower alcohol content.)
However, the critical difference between the two is in the starter materials. While sake uses a cultured yeast along with koji (essentially, cooked sake rice onto which the mold Aspergillus oryzae has been cultivated), cheong-ju uses nuruk, a cake of naturally fermented raw whole wheat powder. The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization has summarized the differences in cereal fermentation processes across Asia, and notes that:
"Enzyme activities in koji are generally higher than those in nuruk. This may be due to the fact that the pure culture of Aspergillus oryzae on loose cereal granules allows maximum growth during the preparation of koji, while in nuruk manufacture, mold growth is confined mainly to the surface of the cake or ball, thus allowing yeasts and lactic acid bacteria to grow simultaneously, and contribute to the deeper flavor notes of Korean rice-wine in later alcoholic fermentation stages."
While all that is very nice and interesting, I should also note that today it made a very nice accompaniment to a lunch of barbecued spicy pork, kochujang, and roasted garlic:
Amuse-bouche of baby octopus. Followed by GV flight:
Steckrüben Suppe (rutabaga, beech mushroom, fried bone marrow...)
...in urfa pepper broth.
Pochiertes Ei (soft-poached egg, lobster, maitake foam and toasted pumpernickel)
Kalbsbries (veal sweetbreads, brussel sprouts and celery root)
Zander (walleye pike, horseradish, egg yolk and dill puree)
Wiener Schnitzel (veal over potato and cucumber salad, served with lingonberry jam, yes, lingonberry!) Ah, a fine match too... those Austrian Rieslings and Grüners, when sharp, are just suited to fried meat!
Bayerische Kreme (Bavarian cream, strawberries, and elderflower sorbet)
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