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. "Hello, I am Gwanghwamun Deok." This afternoon there was a work meeting and I exchanged greetings with the person responsible with whom we would need to collaborate. Introductions are important -- they tell the other person who you are, what you do, and how to interact with you. Wine labels serve the same function. A wine label is the wine business card -- it tells you the producer, the region, the grape variety, the vintage, and often the philosophy. French wine labels follow strict appellation rules (AOC system established 1936) that encode European history -- the label of a Burgundy grand cru reflects the geographic specificity that monks first identified as producing exceptional wine in the Middle Ages; a Bordeaux label reflects the classification system Napoleon III established in 1855 for the Paris Exposition; learning to read wine labels is learning to read European agricultural, political, and cultural history. The personal identity parallel: like a wine that expresses the character of its terroir through its label, we communicate our identity through how we present ourselves; the label is not the wine, just as a resume is not the person -- but it is the interface through which others first encounter us, and it shapes their initial understanding before direct experience.
