South Korea

Ahyoung Jeong

It was a €3 bottle of Rosé d’Anjou that marked the beginning of Ahyoung Jeong’s journey in wine. She bought it while living in Normandy as an exchange student and it sparked her curiosity to discover more. Upon returning to South Korea, her determination to learn about wine grew and she enrolled in a WSET Level 3 course, subsequently leading to the WSET Diploma. What began as a hobby soon became a passion and she left a career in public policy to pursue wine professionally. 

In 2019, she launched a YouTube channel focused on making wine education accessible to a larger audience, hoping to bridge divides between cultures and languages. In 2022, Ahyoung went one step further and founded the Seul School of Wine – an education centre that boasts a WSET Level 3 pass rate of 80%, 1.5x the global average – and she didn’t stop there. In 2024, she launched the Young Wine Professional Scholarship, a programme which has sponsored three local students to pursue advanced wine education. 

“I have heard it takes a village of MWs to raise an MW”, she says and, not one to drag her heels, she is already seeking advice and guidance from current MWs. Becoming a Master of Wine is Ahyoung’s next big goal, and she has started taking steps towards it.