July 12, 2016

Wine by numbers

For fine wine, numbers matter. Since Parker’s rise to power in the ’80s, coinciding with the development of an increasingly diverse wine market, consumers have come to depend on scores to cut through an overwhelming number of options. A perfect Parker score could make a wine; less appealing numbers left producers dead in the mid-market water. Some suggested the rise of “wine by numbers” led to the “Parkerization” of wines – the rise of highly alcoholic, concentrated, fruit-forward bombs that stood out against more subtle opponents in 40-wine line-ups.