South Korea's retail and liquor industries are expanding their gift set lineups ahead of Chuseok, the autumn harvest holiday. Alongside traditional holiday staples such as Korean beef and fermented soybean pastes, they are adding products differentiated by aging periods, while whiskey and wine sets now offer more choices by brand, growing region and grape variety. Online retailers are expanding live-shopping broadcasts that sell gift sets and household groceries together.
Lotte Department Store is introducing "Time Premium" gift sets built around aging and fermentation periods. A Korean beef set developed with Suksudoga, a specialist in aged meat, pairs sirloin with tenderloin or sirloin with striploin, each aged for 360 hours. A black pork set created with Sukseongdo uses "Uri Heukdon," a native breed restored by the National Institute of Animal Science, wet-aged for 168 hours.
The retailer is also selling long-aged whiskeys in limited quantities. Ardbeg The Abyss, made from spirit distilled in 1989, is priced at 40 million won, while Johnnie Walker Master's Ruby Reserve 40-Year-Old sells for 36 million won and The Macallan Red Collection 40-Year-Old for 32 million won. Among traditional soybean products, the store is offering a gift set made with seed soy sauce from the Park Kyung-jung head family in Naju, South Jeolla Province, which has been replenishing the same batch for 200 years.
Liquor companies have also prepared gift sets tailored to each product's characteristics. Diageo Korea has assembled sets spanning whiskey brands including Johnnie Walker, The Singleton, Talisker, Lagavulin and Clynelish. The glassware varies by product: Johnnie Walker Blue Label comes with a Glencairn glass and a glass cap, while the XR 21-Year-Old and Green Label are paired with rocks glasses. Johnnie Walker Black Label is available in 500-milliliter, 700-milliliter and 1-liter bottles.
Shinsegae L&B has built its sets so buyers can compare wines by growing region, grape variety and aging method. E-mart is selling a set pairing a Shiraz from Australia's Barossa Valley with a Chardonnay from Chablis in France, along with a Gran Reserva and Reserva set from the Spanish Rioja winery Faustino. Traders is offering a Cabernet Sauvignon and a Syrah from Chile's Cono Sur, while Wine & More has combined a Malbec and a Torrontés from Argentina's Catena Zapata in one set.
Gmarket will run 24 sessions of "Shopping Marathon," a Chuseok live-shopping series, through the 22nd. Unlike the usual format of featuring a single brand for about an hour, each broadcast will sell up to 50 products over three hours. The lineups combine gift sets such as Korean beef and fruit with everyday goods including toilet paper and diapers, allowing shoppers to compare holiday gifts and grocery items in one place.
