Culinary Class Wars chef Anh Sung-jae's fine-dining restaurant MOSU Seoul is embroiled in allegations of wine switching.
On the 21st, a post titled "I was given a swapped vintage of Château Léoville Barton at MOSU Seoul" was uploaded to a Naver cafe with 200,000 subscribers.
The author, a person surnamed A, visited MOSU Seoul, operated by chef Anh Sung-jae, with acquaintances on the 18th. They enjoyed a meal with the wine pairings offered by the restaurant, and according to them, a problem occurred with the pairing wine served with one of the main dishes, "hanwoo roasted in a wood-fired oven."
According to the person surnamed A, the wine listed on the pairing list was "Château Léoville Barton Saint-Julien vintage 2000." But the sommelier brought out a 2005 vintage bottle and described it as 2005 while serving the wine. The person surnamed A said, "Neither I nor my party remembered the vintage on the pairing list," and that they did not notice the problem at the time.
While this was happening, the sommelier briefly went to the staff area before placing the bottle on the table, and then returned and oddly placed a bottle on the table. The bottle the sommelier brought back was a 2000 vintage bottle. The person surnamed A said, "At first, none of us in my party knew. But after smelling and tasting the wine and checking the pairing list, we realized only then that the 2000 vintage should have been served," adding, "Worried that we might have misheard or misremembered, I reviewed the photos taken at the time of service and confirmed that the bottle had been a 2005 vintage when served."
In other words, the 2000 vintage should originally have been served, but the sommelier poured a 2005 vintage, and after the person surnamed A requested a photo of the bottle, the staff allegedly switched it in the staff area to a 2000 vintage bottle and placed it on A's table. When A's party requested confirmation, the sommelier reportedly said, "The 2000 vintage bottle had been taken down to the first floor," and "I'll let you taste the 2000 vintage," according to the account.
The person surnamed A said that although the wine that should have been properly served was the 2000 vintage, "we didn't want to spoil the pleasant dining atmosphere, so we said okay and accepted the service as follows," and emphasized that the two wines were different vintages: "The left is the 2000 vintage, the right is the 2005 vintage. The color is different. The aroma goes without saying."
They added, "The two vintages differ by 100,000 won per bottle on MOSU's in-house bottle price. After the sommelier served the 2005 vintage and we requested a photo of the bottle, they said, 'One moment,' brought a 2000 vintage bottle and placed it, so I think they already knew at the time of service," and criticized, "Anyone can make a mistake. Bottle labels can look so similar that you might momentarily read the vintage number wrong. But at a two-star Michelin restaurant, it's questionable whether such a mistake is acceptable coming from a sommelier. And to say, 'I'll let you taste it'—there was no apology that day. Their handling and response were very disappointing."
As the post spread, negative reactions continued among netizens. Because wine's aroma and taste vary dramatically by vintage, the vintage is important. Given that MOSU is a Michelin two-star fine restaurant with fierce reservations and that bottles cost several hundred thousand won each, some netizens said they could not understand the sommelier's mistake.
Moreover, unlike ordinary restaurants, MOSU operates for a small number of prebooked customers, making mistakes less likely. Combined with the sommelier's inadequate handling, disappointment has poured in. MOSU Seoul has not issued a separate statement on the matter so far.
Meanwhile, Anh Sung-jae is a Korean-American chef who became known to the public as a judge on the Netflix cooking survival show Culinary Class Wars. In particular, MOSU Seoul, which he operates, was once a major topic as Korea's only three-star restaurant. MOSU Seoul, which closed in 2024, reopened last year and was named two stars in the Michelin Guide announced in March this year.
[Photo] OSEN DB, online community
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