JookJangYeon, a business founded by wine importer Michael Jung—whose father carved out a decades-long relationship with farmers in the mountain village of Jukjang-myeon in Korea.
The producer works with local farming collectives to harvest their soybeans and prepares their products with care using traditional methods—such as boiling meju (blocks of fermented soybeans) over a fire made from oak logs before they are tied up with rice straw ropes and hung to dry outdoors in the natural valley winds.