▲ 264 Green Grape Wine / CEO Lee Dong-soo

264 Green Grape Wine borrowed the pen name of the poet Yi Yuk-sa whose poem is themed on the fruit. <PowerKorea> met CEO Lee Dong-soo. 

Andong born independence activist and poet Yi Yuk-sa

Yi was born on May 18, 1904 at 881 Wonwon-ri, Dosan-myeon, Andong-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do. Andong is the place where the Gapouibeong fought against Japan in 1894 and is also a town that produced many independence activists. Born and raised in Andong, he acquired Andong’s strong spirit of resistance. His real name is Lee Won-rok (軝篧粖) and Lee Won-sam (軝篧葀). Yuk-sa (袬瘏) is derived from the number 264 (鴥袗痼) of Daegu Prison. He graduated from Dosan Public Primary School in 1919 and studied at Baekhak Academy in 1921. He visited China frequently and fought for independence. In the fall of 1943, when he came to Seoul for a short time, he was caught by a Japanese official and sent to Beijing, where he died in prison in January 1944. 

Home of poet Yi Yuk-sa where green grapes ripen, 264 Green Grape Wine

‘264 Green Grape Wine’ originated from a regional specialization project of the Andong City Agricultural Technology Center in 2017. The Rural Development Administration started a business to supply a green grape variety called ‘Cheongsu’ developed with grape wine. CEO Lee, who has been farming watermelon for over 40 years, joined the project as a winery operator. Lee said “I am also from the family of Jinseong Lee and Toegye Lee Hwang. The poet Lee Yuk-sa is sort of my father-in-law. Andong City Agricultural Technology Center was planning to develop green grape wine and it proposed to me for winery operation. I didn’t know about wine at the time, but I decided to do it because I was confident in farming watermelon for decades.” He studied wine while attending a wine school in Yeongcheon for three years and obtained a sommelier license. He set up a team to grow green grapes, set up a winery, and learned the techniques of grape growing and winemaking as well as maturation. After 8 years of preparation through quality testing, the first wine was produced in 2019. 

▲ 264 Green Grape Wine / CEO Lee Dong-soo

Writing poetry and savoring wine

264 Green Grape Wine makes three types of green grape wines, ‘peak (13.5%)’, ‘wilderness (12.5%)’, and ‘flower (11.5%)’ depending on the degree of sweetness. The names of the three types of products are also derived from the poems of Yi Yuk-sa. “All three types are white wines made from the same green grapes, so I recommend drinking them according to your personal taste.” In general, red wine is consumed with fatty foods such as meat, and white wine is drunk with foods with distinctive flavors such as fish and seafood. “264 Green Grape Wine is fermented with the skin, so it has both astringent and bitter taste. Therefore, when eaten with all foods, such as meat, oily food, or fish, the throat is soft without any objection. 264 Green Grape Wine is aged in stainless steel tanks without artificially added oak flavor to preserve the unique aroma of green grapes, and the quality and maturation status of the wines being aged are meticulously checked every day.” 

264 Green Grape Wine is making wine to commemorate the independence activist and national poet Yi Yuk-sa and it is capturing the taste buds of people around the world as well as Korea. Lee said “Recently, it is difficult to penetrate a niche market as imported low-priced wines are pouring out indiscriminately, but the growth potential of ‘Korean-style wines’ is sufficient.”