In the soft morning light of Europe’s vineyards, when mist clings to the contours of the land and the first rays of sun ignite the dew on a ripening grape, a quiet drama is already in motion—one that will culminate, months or years later, in a glass raised at one of the world’s most influential wine competitions. Among these, few loom as large, or as quietly powerful, as the Concours Mondial de...

The room was cold and smelled of steel and wet glass. Rows of bottles waited in silence. Their labels were hidden. Their stories were not. Men and women in white coats and dark jackets sat at long tables under hard light. They lifted glasses. They tasted. They spat. They wrote. Outside, the world went on, not knowing that in this quiet room reputations were being made and broken in a matter of...