I've been working hard to make Korean whisky since I was in my 20's, and now I'm approaching 40. Nevertheless, I still feel like this is just the beginning.

Thinking back to the promise I made to make whisky 10 years ago, I will continue to move forward to make better whisky.

We would like to express our gratitude to everyone who has supported and waited for Kim Chang-soo Whisky. Thank you.

Kim Chang-soo

What must it feel like for a whole country to be rooting for your success? It's something that quite frankly the majority of us would have dreamt of and yet realistically know that in order to achieve that, it would ask so much of us. And perhaps that's why South Korea's Kim Chang-soo is precisely the sort of character whom you might least expect to be the center of attention, and yet is unsurprisingly exactly that sort of person that folks would root for.

Going back to Kim's early days, he had fell in love with whisky and had sought to be involved with it in any capacity possible. That meant being a bartender, working the duty free aisles, even helping to translate to Korean the Father of Japanese whisky, Nikka Whisky's Masataka Taketsuru's book "Whisky and I". He was deeply inspired by Park Rok-dam, a local expect on traditional Korean liquors, and thus wanted to bring to Korea something that at the time was globally appreciated and yet not made locally - he wanted to show that Korea too could make whisky.

And thus having saved up some money, he would journey to Scotland at the age of 28 and with just a bicycle, spend the next 132 days visiting every single one of Scotland's 102 distilleries in search of an apprenticeship - only to be rejected by each of them. His lack of a visa and native Korean language proved to be a barrier. But alas this is not a tragedy of forgone hope, it is one of resilience and triumph. In his last days in Scotland, he would hang out at the country's bars and as fate would have it, come to befriend an employee of Japan's cult Chichibu Distillery. This eventually led to a 10-day training at the highly esteemed Japanese distillery in Saitama, after which Kim's passion would gain even more fuel. He would spend the next 6 years working various jobs whilst he saved up enough money and drew up plans to building his own distillery. 

Finally in the June of 2020, the small outfit was up. The first spirit would come off the stills in January of 2021. Being completely self funded, Kim would devote all his time to the sheer amount of work needed to run the distillery - visitors to his one-man operated distillery would take note of the lines of emptied cup noodle boxes along the shelves. And even after a long day at the distillery, Kim would do well to visit the local bars and retail shops distributing his whiskies himself, and even regularly get on to Youtube to vlog his journey and to taste various whiskies with his fans. This ultimate dedication to making a truly Korean whisky has cultivated for Kim a massive fanbase with many excited to finally get a taste of the culmination of all of Kim's efforts - his first bottling, only aged for 1 year, 1 month and 20 days, was sold out in just 10 days, with the most ardent of fans having queued 16 hours only to get their bottle at dawn - out of complete fortune, we were able to taste Kim's first release that was generously shared with us by a local bar, The Auld Alliance.

And thus through it all, with some 4 years under his belt, Kim has won over even his biggest critics. "The words that moved me most was 'How can you do what even a big company can't", 'this is impossible', 'you can't do it'." "Really? But I think I can do it," Kim reminds himself. Today, he has the whole country on his side, ready for the man Kim Chang-soo to deliver his great contribution to the history of Korean whiskymaking.

Today we're incredibly fortunate to get to try Kim's first official whisky that's aged over 3 years (and thus qualifying across the board the widely agreed upon whisky standards for ageing). Kim had mentioned that because he had wanted to make sure his first widely distributed expression was of the utmost quality, he had opted to keep maturing it for as much longer as possible, which inevitably led to its late release. This first expression - the Kim Chang Soo Gimpo First Edition 2024 Korean Single Malt Whisky - is made from non-peated Golden Promise malt and Scottish peated malt, and is bottled at cask strength of 50.1% ABV. It is a blend of 9 casks, aged between 3 years and 1 month to 3 years and 7 months.

The casks used are: 1st fill Oloroso Sherry European Oak Quarter, 1st fill Oloroso Sherry European Oak Quarter, 1st fill PX Sherry European Oak Quarter, 1st fill Bordeaux Wine European Oak Barrique, 1st fill Bordeaux Wine European Oak Barrique, 1st fill Oloroso Sherry American Oak Hogshead, 1st fill PX Sherry European Oak Hogshead, 1st fill PX Sherry European Oak Hogshead and 1st fill PX Sherry American Oak Butt. 

Let's give it a go!

Whisky Review: Kimchangsoo Whisky Gimpo Korean Single Malt, First Edition 2024, 50.1% ABV | 김창수위스키 김포 2024

Tasting Notes

Colour: Copperish Amber

Aroma: It opens with a plume of sweet charcoal smoke, within which is a bold sweet savouriness of honey and teriyaki glaze, mesquite BBQ sauce, it’s deep and rich, great fullness and concentration, yet also very rounded with a thicker syrupy quality to it. There’s a subtle tone of herbaceousness to it of combo seaweed and little sprinkles of sea spray, along with some heather and mustiness of polished wood. Incredibly aromatic, rich and concentrated.

Taste: The smokiness and sweet umami savouriness of teriyaki glaze combines seamlessly here into evocative notes of honey BBQ ribs, or perhaps Chinese char siu meats or Thai moo ping meat skewers. It’s rich and luscious, with an oily, fuller body. It’s velvety and almost syrupy here. It’s honeyed, alittle candied, and really incredibly distinct, fully focused on delivering that one note. It’s firm and concentrated, with such a photorealistic quality of charcoal BBQ ribs.

Finish: It continues to open up into the finish, with this lifted sensation that feels like a lid has been taken off a jar. That charcoal smoke carries through the finish, bringing with it kombu seaweed. That superb richness and oiliness persists, with just a touch of iodine and oyster shells that lingers on the finish, with just a slight peaty bittersweetness.

My Thoughts

This is a really impressive whisky, I must say. It’s incredibly distinct, with such a focus and emphasis on delivering this one particular note on the body - although its texture is also something worth raving about, being so rich and lush, with such great concentration and velvety, syrupy texture. 

Yet throughout the experience, the thing that kept coming to mind was just how well integrated the peat was with the whisky. This isn’t one of those hugely medicinal, iodine forward, liquid bonfires - here it’s powerful and aromatic, but so seamlessly combined with the whisky’s inherent sweet savouriness that it’s together created this distinct image of BBQ and sweet glazed meats. The bitterness here is incredibly restrained, with mostly sweet charcoal smoke that comes through, the sort you’d fine in binchotan grilled meats. This is wrapped up around a body of sweet honey and teriyaki glaze that gives it all that richness and meaty oiliness.

The finish too brought something quite impressive - whilst on the palate it feels like it’s entered on this one flavour, as it approaches the finish, it almost feels like a lid has been taken off, and the whisky then takes on this lifted quality - as if the contents of a jar were now pouring out - giving all that array of complexity of seaweed, oyster shells and charcoal smoke that carries on through a long and deep finish.

Whilst its tempting to compare this to Islay whiskies - this stands out for being not only so concentrated and intentional, with such seamlessness in how it presents itself, with such richness and depth that sets it apart, but also in its ability to deliver this charcoal sensation that brings out this sweet umami savouriness of teriyaki sauce that I can’t say I’ve found too often with Islay whiskies. This has to be a Korean single malt through and through. A stellar whisky to say the least!