By Han Sang-hee
Staff Reporter


Korea's first wine drama "Terroir" will bring passion, love and struggles of liquor masters
to the small screen. The drama will start airing at 9:55 p.m. Dec. 1 on SBS. / Courtesy of SBS

A good storyline and talented stars are the soil to a successful drama. In the case of new SBS drama "Terroir," there is an interesting cast of wines.

"Terroir" refers to the certain qualities such as climate, soil, humidity and topography that are needed in order to make wine. As fundamentally strong elements make for good, solid wine, so it goes for relationships. That's the correlation that the drama will develop with actors Kim Joo-hyuk and Han Hye-jin as a couple.

"This is the first wine drama in Korea. We wanted to show different varieties of wine, and that such varieties correspond in people; dry, sweet or sour. Not only will the audience get to watch a love story, but also get some information about wine along the way," chief producer Kim Young-sub said at a press conference last week in southern Seoul.

Unlike usual conferences, which lack alcohol, there were bottles of wine and glasses for the press, actors and guests, and everyone had the chance to take a sip of wine throughout the event.

Actress Han plays the headstrong Wu-ju, a Korean traditional liquor expert and the owner of a small traditional liquor shop. Having high hopes to bring the native liquor to the international level, she coincidently meets Tae-min, played by Kim, and learns that he has bought the shop and she must either move out or stay as his assistant. Tae-min is a wine expert who has a secret past and when he meets Wu-ju, he treats her like a bad wine: unattractive, odorless and boring. However, as he purchases her shop to recreate it as a wine cellar, incidents start to unfold between the two, and the stubborn yet passionate liquor experts start to wonder why they keep on getting entangled with each other.

The plot is simple, with the stunning backdrop of Bordeaux, France and music that carries the romantic elements of chansons.

"Some people are afraid of wine, but this is a common misconception. The goal is to bring wine to the tables of our viewers," director Kim Young-min told The Korea Times during a brief interview after the conference.

Considering that wine is, in fact, not a local drink, how did he come up with a drama based on wine in the first place?

"There was a so-called 'wine boom' here a couple of years ago. Wine is popular around the world, and I realized that Korea was also joining the trend. But the problem was that many people still thought it was only for the elite. I wanted to change that by showing how easy and approachable wine actually is through an easy and sweet story about two liquor experts,'' he added.

Thanks to wine experts and traveling to France frequently, the crew was able to experience the real life of the French enjoying wine.

"Drinking wine is nothing special in France. It's not about getting drunk. They simply enjoyed the atmosphere. Personally, it would be great if people watching the drama would realize how easy wine is and actually have a glass after the show," he added, sipping a glass of red wine himself.

"Terroir" will start airing Dec. 1 at 9:55 p.m. on SBS.

Credits: sanghee@koreatimes.co.kr

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/art/2.../201_35029.html