You know those awards given to restaurants for their wine lists? Well what happens when an award is given to a restaurant thad doesn't even exist? Hard to believe but that's just  what has happened with the recent Wine Spectator awards. A fake restaurant, website, menu and wine list was created by wine critic and author, Robin Goldstein to reveal the farce with some of these awards. To make matters even worse, he added wines to the list that he knew Wine Spectator had panned including a 1993 Amarone that was likened to "paint thinner." He sent this information along with the $250 application fee that is a requirement for entry and that he said is a key to this whole process. This year there were about 4500 entries with most receiving some sort of recognition. Translate that into about $1 million in revenue and it's not a bad system.

Wine Spectator responded by saying they try to verify all the entries but can not visit every restaurant. In the case of this made up restaurant, called Osteria L'Intrepido supposedly in Milan, Italy, they claim they found information on the internet including a map with its location along with diner reviews.

Chances are this will hurt the magazine's credibility somewhat but I have always taken ratings with a grain of salt anyway and this just is another reason why.

Cheers,

The Wining Woman

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