Yeon Jeong-hun completes his first international wine judging

Actor Youn Junghoon has earned another title outside of his acting career. He participated as an international judge at the 33rd Concours Mondial de Bruxelles (CMB) held in Yerevan, Armenia, and his name is officially listed on the jury roster as ‘Youn Junghoon, South Korea.’ This is more than just a celebrity hobby news story, as the nature of the event is quite distinct. This competition is an international tasting where wines are evaluated based on taste, aroma, and balance through blind tastings.

Youn Junghoon's words stand out even more as his first judging experience

On May 25, Youn Junghoon posted photos from his trip to the CMB in Armenia on his personal channel, sharing his thoughts after completing his first judging session. After joking that he couldn't smile brightly after tasting the red wine, he wrote, “It was my first time judging, so I was trembling and nervous, but it was a wonderful experience.” These short words convey more than exaggerated adjectives. It is because an actor, who has long been a wine lover, sat at the judging table of an international competition for the first time and did not hide even that nervousness.

It is nothing new that he is known as a wine enthusiast. In the 2024 tvN variety show ‘Europe Outside the Tent - South France Edition,’ Han Ga-in drew attention by mentioning her husband's love for wine. However, this occasion goes beyond merely expressing a preference. At the judging table, multiple glasses of wine and tablets for evaluation were placed, and Youn Junghoon worked in a position where he directly tasted the participating wines and assigned scores. Given that there was a long-cultivated interest behind the actor's face familiar to the public, this update offers much more to talk about than simple travel photos.

What kind of event was the Yerevan CMB?

This year's CMB Red and White wine sessions were held in Yerevan from May 21 to 23. For the 2026 competition, more than 320 judges from 56 nationalities participated, and approximately 6,700 varieties of red and white wines and about 1,000 varieties of sparkling wines were subject to evaluation. The results were released on June 10, with 2,047 medals awarded in the red/white sessions and 2,559 CMB Merits, a separate quality designation. Moldova recorded a high award rate of 52.4%, winning 66 medals out of 126 entries among more than 100 participating countries, and the host country, Armenia, also obtained 31 medals.

These numbers are important because Youn Junghoon's participation is different from a promotional scene where a 'celebrity just dropped by an event.' To reduce prejudice from labels and origins, the CMB uses blind tasting as its standard. Judges evaluate wines by examining aroma, taste, balance, and finish. The inclusion of a Korean actor's name on that list is a moment where his interest has been publicly confirmed in a professional field outside of the entertainment industry.

The moment an actor's hobby turned into professional activity

A celebrity's hobby often becomes content, but most of it remains in the realm of consumption. What makes Youn Junghoon's case slightly different is that he sat in the position of an evaluator rather than a consumer. Of course, one cannot easily call him a wine expert based on a single judging participation. However, if he was included in the jury list of an international tasting and participated in the actual evaluation process, it is clear that his love for wine does not merely exist as a broadcast image.

The key moving forward is how this interest will continue. It could expand into wine-related broadcasts, lectures, or brand collaborations, or he could quietly continue professional activities separately from his main career as an actor. There is only one next scene confirmed for now: Youn Junghoon has completed his first international wine judging in Armenia, and his name remains on this year's CMB jury list.