The objective of this study was to improve the quality of Korean rice wine with wild type yeast strains isolated from various traditional Korean fermented foods. Herein the fermentation and sensory characterization of wild yeast, for the purposes of brewing Korean rice wine, was investigated. 12 yeast strains were examined for their ethanol and glucose tolerance. In addition, the pH, soluble solids, acidity, amino acidity, ethanol content, organic acids, and volatile compounds were also studied for the alcoholic beverages made with the wild yeasts. Almost all Saccharomyces genera yeasts were showed to have a tolerance at 10% ethanol, but non-Saccharomyces genera yeasts displayed a low tolerance. The alcoholic beverages fermented by non-Saccharomyces yeasts demonstrated higher levels of soluble solids, titratable acidity, amino acids, and lower ethanol content, when compared with the alcoholic beverages fermented by Saccharomyces genera yeasts. The organic acid content, such as malic acid, acetic acid, and succinic acid, was seen to also be higher. The electronic nose was analyzed, and discriminant function analysis (DFA) was used for discriminating wild yeast strains. The DFA plots indicated a significant separation of Saccharomyces genera and non-Saccharomyces yeast strains. For volatile compounds, ethyl acetate from non-Saccharomyces yeasts, and ethanol from Saccharomyces genera yeast, a high area ratio was observed.