OUR FAMILY

For 60 years, our family has called the Pacific Northwest home. We are dentists, doctors, homemakers, and tech workers. I never would have thought I would be adding “winemaker” to that list.

In the summer of 2021, I went on an unexpected journey. I remembered a drink I had while visiting family in Korea. It was unique and refreshing. It made good food taste even better and didn’t give me a headache the next morning. It was called makgeolli. The only problem was I couldn’t find the stuff anywhere in America. The real stuff at least. So, I settled for the next best thing: learning how to make it myself.

Braving Coronavirus travel restrictions and the blistering Korean heat, I spent the next few months in a small basement kitchen cooking rice. Under the guidance of Julia Mellor of the Sool Company—an Australian expert in Korean alcohol—I quickly came to appreciate the complex history and abiding cultural importance of this “farmer’s drink”. I also discovered a passionate community of families, entrepreneurs, and homebrewers working to keep traditional Korean sool alive.

I believe in the power of sool to bring people together no matter who you are or where you come from. So please, join us on our continuing journey; one brew, one bottle, one cup at a time.

– Peter