Wine Pairing -- Korean Food

Any suggestions for what to pair with Korean food?

Menu isn’t set yet, but I will probably have a fairly traditional menu of kim chee (spicy cabbage), gal bee (grilled short ribs), various sides, etc. Normally I would do beer (and perhaps still might) but I would prefer to do wine if there’s a paring that makes sense.

TIA.

Auslese and/or Gewurtztraminer are my thoughts

Steve,

It’s this Saturday and you’re invited.

If you like, feel free to bring over a palate or two.

Nothing. Garlic and spice will overwhelm whatever you’re drinking. But, that doesn’t mean I won’t open something. I usually opt for an over the top Syrah, works for me.

You could try a Grenache or a Cotes du Rhone. The sweetness in the Grenache mitigates the spiciness of the kim chee.

I’m thinking of a Champers to start (before we really get eating) and a sticky for dessert. I think Syrah might be interesting. Hmm…

Cold beer.

What about the Soju?? And Hite beer! When I eat Korean, I like it really spicy. I throw fresh jalapenos, garlic and kim chee on just about everything. I normally stick to Soju and beer during the meal, but if I were to have wine, I like Jkim’s Syrah recommendation. I think I’ll try it out sometime.

Edit: Didn’t realize that image would appear so large. removed.

It might end up being beer. My cousins are a bit older and I’m not really sure what they drink.

If I go the beer route, do you have suggestions for something more interesting than a good lager?

With the heat, I would go with a German Hefe Weizen from Paulaner or Spaten.

A couple weeks ago I made David Chang’s bo ssam recipe and served a couple kinds of kimchi and a chinese pickle with it. I tried 3 wines: a '94 Schonborn Kabinett, a young and quite sweet Chester Gap (Virginia) Petit Manseng, and an '08 Chateau de Chorey Vignes Franches.

The burg paired well. The kab didn’t quite have the body and the Petit Manseng was actually too sweet for the food.

personally, i like a big jammy zin for kbbq (if you’re going the marinated route)
if you’re going to do the non marinated meat with light dipping sauce then i’d probably have your favorite steak red for meat and a crisp riesling/gerwurtz for the other items.

I make marinated Korean short ribs all the time, and they go great with wine, particularly your bigger, riper, less tannic reds like New World Rhones and zin, though I think most non-delicate reds would work well enough if you’re not trying to achieve wine pairing perfection.

I’m always amazed at how many threads I see on Wine Berzerkers declaring that countless types of food out there either (a) don’t go with wine and so you should have beer instead, or (b) only go with riesling, gewurtz or other lighter whites. Maybe I love wine too much or am not enough of a perfectionist, but I rarely eat anything that I can’t enjoy perfectly well with some wine.

Hopefully you’ll already have a lot of palates in attendance. But you’ll have way more fun if Steve shows up with one of his pallets.

After dinner, you can do some pilates to burn off the calories.

I was at work and knew I made a mistake immediately after I pressed submit…

Hey, I have to look those up every time.

I have had good luck with Cru Beaujolais, Chinon; both with a chill. Lately I’ve been going with a hearty Rhone wine, either a juicy Cotes du Rhone or Chateauneuf. On the Italian side, the lighter reds like Schiava, Grignolino or Freisa work with a little chill but don’t count Lambrusco out. Again cool the bottle down, good artisanal Lambrusco works very well.

I agree with the Soju and Hite beer recommendation.

Chung ha is a korean sake, if you don’t like soju

I think the big Korean beer brands are nasty, Hite and OB. To me basically Bud and Coors of Korea. I like Yebisu beer with Korean BBQ.