Les Copains

Wine as the Main Event in Gangnam

Seoul's bar and restaurant scene has split decisively over the past decade. On one side sit the high-production cocktail theatres of Cheongdam and Itaewon, drawing international press with elaborate format and technique. On the other sits a quieter cohort of wine-led addresses where the glass, the list, and the service dynamic between sommelier and guest carry the full weight of the evening. Les Copains is a bar in Gangnam District, Seoul, at 24 Dosan-daero 70-gil. Its three consecutive Star Wine List awards, covering 2024, 2025, and 2026, confirm it as one of a small number of Seoul venues where the wine program is the primary proposition rather than a backdrop to food or cocktail performance.

Dosan-daero has become one of Seoul's more reliable corridors for this kind of focused hospitality. The street and its offshoots host a concentration of wine bars, independent restaurants, and specialty coffee addresses that collectively signal a neighbourhood more interested in product depth than spectacle. Les Copains at number 24 fits that character: the name itself, French for "friends" or "companions," sets a register of informal conviviality that sits at odds with the stiff formality common to many premium wine destinations globally, and deliberately so.

What Three Years of Star Wine List Recognition Actually Means

Star Wine List recognition, earned in three successive years by Les Copains, signals consistency in the list rather than a one-off moment. It is building and maintaining a program that holds up across assessment cycles.

For the reader deciding between Seoul wine addresses, that sustained recognition matters more than a single-year award. Seoul has seen a wave of wine bar openings since roughly 2019, many of them stylish and well-located but inconsistent in list quality over time. The venues that hold Star Wine List recognition consecutively represent a more selective tier, where the program is curated with enough discipline to satisfy external scrutiny year after year. In that context, Les Copains sits within a selective tier of the city’s wine bars.

The Collaboration at the Core

Wine venues at this level tend to succeed or fail on the relationship between three roles: the person sourcing and structuring the list, the person serving and communicating it, and the kitchen or snack program that frames what's in the glass. When those three functions are working in coordination, the result is an evening where the wine doesn't feel like an add-on to the food, or vice versa, and where the front-of-house is confident enough to guide without being prescriptive.

This kind of team dynamic is harder to sustain than it looks. In many wine bars, the list reflects one person's obsessions while the service team lacks the depth to explain or advocate for it. In others, front-of-house warmth compensates for a list that hasn't been thought through with the same rigour. The three-year Star Wine List track record at Les Copains suggests that the sourcing and curation side is working at a consistent standard. The French-language name and the informal social register it signals suggest that the front-of-house approach is calibrated to match, keeping the expertise approachable rather than academic.

For a useful comparison within Seoul's broader drinks scene, venues like Bar Cham and Bar D.Still represent the cocktail-forward end of the premium bar category, while Charles H sits in the hotel-bar tier with a different set of reference points entirely. Alice Cheongdam occupies its own conceptual space. Les Copains is doing something distinct from all of them: it is making the wine list the primary reason to visit, which is a narrower and more demanding proposition.

Seoul's Wine Bar Moment in Regional Context

The sustained credentialing of Seoul wine addresses is part of a wider pattern across East Asia, where wine bar culture has matured from import-led novelty to a scene with genuine critical infrastructure. Cities from Busan to Taipei to Tokyo now have wine-focused venues capable of holding their own in international assessments. In South Korea specifically, the regional spread is broadening: venues like Climat in Busan and Muyongdam in Jeju Si indicate that the category is no longer a Seoul-only story. Within Seoul, however, Gangnam and specifically the Dosan-daero area remain the densest concentration of this kind of venue, with the consumer base, real estate character, and spending patterns that support a serious wine program.

Internationally, the comparison points are wine bars in cities with established critical wine cultures: Paris's natural wine addresses in the 11th, London's independent wine rooms in Soho and Bermondsey, New York's Lower East Side lists. What Seoul's stronger wine venues share with those references is the move away from the old model, where the wine list existed to support the food, toward a model where the list is itself the editorial proposition. Les Copains fits that shift within the Seoul context.

For those tracking the premium drinks scene beyond Seoul, the EP Club covers comparable formats across the region and further afield, including Anjuga in Ansan Si, Regency Club in Incheon, Seuwichi in Heungdeok, and further across the Pacific, Bar Leather Apron in Honolulu and Jewel of the South in New Orleans.

Planning a Visit

Les Copains is located at 24 Dosan-daero 70-gil in Gangnam District, a short distance from the main Dosan-daero strip. The neighbourhood is easily reached from Apgujeong Rodeo station or Sinnonhyeon station, and the side-street address means the immediate surroundings are quieter than the main thoroughfare might suggest. Booking is recommended, and the venue’s hours are Mon to Sat 5:30 PM to 1 AM, with Sunday closed.