Kakao Brunchbook 6th Publishing Project Special Award Winner
Wine flows into the Glencairn glass -- deep ruby radiance, bewitching color. Swirling the glass gently. A vibrant aroma flies into the nostrils. Thirst rushes in. Lifting the glass to the lips. Slowly tilting. Wine flows over the tongue. Sweetness and smoothness. Closing eyes, sketching an image. "This week is the performance evaluation period." The team leader speaks with a rather serious expression. With the thought that this year has already passed, what will my evaluation score be this time? The 100-point wine scoring system: Robert Parker pioneered the 100-point scale for wine evaluation in the 1970s-80s; scores above 90 became a commercial threshold (90+ scores dramatically increase sales); critics like Parker became kingmakers who could make or break wine estates with their scores; the system created enormous efficiency for consumers navigating thousands of wines but also created perverse incentives for winemakers to produce wines that score well rather than wines that are distinctive; Parker preference for rich, concentrated, high-alcohol wines influenced an entire generation of winemakers to produce in that style. The score is just a score: a 92-point wine enjoyed at a dinner with friends may be a more meaningful experience than a 98-point wine drunk alone trying to appreciate it correctly; wine scores, like performance evaluations, are useful summaries but imperfect proxies for the actual experience of value; a score tells you what one person thought at one moment under specific conditions -- it cannot tell you whether this wine will suit your palate, your food, your occasion; developing personal taste requires drinking widely, paying attention, and trusting your own experience over any expert evaluation.
