Wine Spectator Award

[Edward Hamilton]

The following is the second article in the LA Times about a Wine Spectator award of excellence.

The first article appeared a couple of days ago.

Wine Spectator drinks a hearty glass of blush (Additional Coverage)
The magazine praises a Milan restaurant that doesn't exist. Wine critic and author Robin Goldstein cooked up the hoax.
Source: Los Angeles Times
By Jerry Hirsch, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
August 22, 2008
Milan's Osteria L'Intrepido restaurant won Wine Spectator magazine's award of excellence this year despite a wine list that features a 1993 Amarone Classico Gioe S. Sofia, which the magazine once likened to "paint thinner and nail varnish."
Even worse: Osteria L'Intrepido doesn't exist.
To the magazine's chagrin, the restaurant is a Web-based fiction devised by wine critic and author Robin Goldstein, who said he wanted to expose the lack of any foundation for many food and wine awards.
To pull off the hoax, Goldstein created a bogus website for the restaurant and submitted an application for the award that included a copy of the restaurant's menu (which he describes as "a fun amalgamation of somewhat bumbling nouvelle-Italian recipes") and a high-priced "reserve wine list" well-stocked with dogs like the 1993 Amarone.
The application also included what Goldstein suggests was the key qualification: a $250 entry fee.
"I am interested in what's behind all the ratings and reviews we read. . . . The level of scrutiny is not sufficient," said Goldstein, who revealed the prank while presenting a paper at an American Assn. of Wine Economists meeting in Portland,Ore., last weekend.
In response, Wine Spectator Executive Editor Thomas Matthews listed in a posting on the New York-based magazine's website its "significant efforts to verify the facts":
"a. We called the restaurant multiple times; each time, we reached an answering machine and a message from a person purporting to be from the restaurant claiming that it was closed at the moment.
"b. Googling the restaurant turned up an actual address and located it on a map of Milan.
"c. The restaurant sent us a link to a website that listed its menu."
Wine Spectator even found discussion about the restaurant from purported diners on the foodie website Chowhound.
In a telephone interview, Matthews denounced Goldstein's actions as a "publicity-seeking scam."
He also denied that the award of excellence was designed to generate revenue for the magazine. "This is a program that recognizes the efforts restaurants put into their wine lists," he said.
Matthews said the magazine did not attempt to visit the phony Milan restaurant; it never visits about 200 of the establishments that get its award each year. But he said the awards had contributed to the growing popularity of wine since they were started by the magazine in 1981.
Getting the award, however, isn't exactly like winning an Olympic medal. This year, nearly 4,500 restaurants spent $250 each to apply or reapply for the Wine Spectator award, and all but 319 won the award of excellence or some greater kudos, Matthews said.
That translates to more than $1 million in revenue.
Tom Pirko, a beverage industry consultant who lives in Santa Barbara County's wine country, said the hoax would dent the magazine's credibility.
"This gets down to what the Wine Spectator is all about. It's not exactly Wine for Dummies; it's more Wine for the Gullible," Pirko said. "This gives the appearance of paying for advertising disguised as a contest."
Restaurants that win the award receive a plaque they can mount for diners to see and a listing as a wine-friendly establishment on the magazine's website. They typically use the award as a form of marketing and advertising, Pirko said.
Goldstein said he came up with the idea while doing research for an academic paper about the standards for wine awards. He is coauthor of "The Wine Trials," a book that looks at how 500 blind tasters from around the country evaluated 6,000 wines ranging in price from $1.50 to $150 a bottle.
He contends that people think wine tastes better when they know it is expensive, citing as evidence taste tests that show two-thirds of people preferred a $12 Domaine Ste. Michelle Brut, a Washington state sparkling wine, to a $150 Dom Perignon Champagne.
When he crafted the bogus wine list for Osteria L'Intrepido (Italian for "The Fearless Restaurant") Goldstein also included a 1985 Barbaresco Asij Ceretto, which Wine Spectator described as "earthy, swampy, gamy, harsh and tannic."
"While Osteria L'Intrepido may be the first to win an award of excellence for an imaginary restaurant," Goldstein said, "it's unlikely that it was the first submission that didn't accurately reflect the restaurant."

[mac]

Who would have thought that wine snobs would be so gulible. GREAT ARTICLE THANKS FOR KEEPING US INFORMED!!!!

[Hank Koestner]

Ed, this is great stuff. Really makes the argument for how much of what we see effects our opinions.

[Rum Runner]

Originally Posted by mac

Who would have thought that wine snobs would be so gullible. GREAT ARTICLE THANKS FOR KEEPING US INFORMED!!!!

Snobs of all kind are gullible. They rely on a perception of status to guide their tastes.

Then of course there are "reverse" snobs, who find fault with anything more than their pocketbook seems to allow.

Years ago when I was in the wine trade a number of other colleagues watched, as the Spectator took what was a good idea and turned it into a "pay for play" event.

Goldstein's bottom line is correct...One with a superficial taste is influenced by price...whether it be high or low.

When making a critical review...price needs to be left out of the equation.

When making a purchase, then we can all weigh the perceived "value" component at the counter.

[VicZinc]

Hey guys, I just tried a great new Rum: Vocк Brinca. Distilled from virgin sugarcane by a process using wild heirloom yeasts and naturally occurring fungal elements and quintupely filtered rainwater collected in coconut-leaf lined washtubs. The pot-stills produce a crystal clear distillate, which is filtered through sun-dried lime and orange seeds (a byproduct of the local fruit juice industries). Aged in oak barrels imported from Spain that had previously been used for Solera processed Amontillado and then hand scrubbed with volcanic ash.

Produced in Petite Mustique by Cuban йmigrйs posing as French mimes this delicious golden rum is extremely light in character while providing depth from its minimum thirty-year barrel maturation. Predominate taste include an underlying molasses mouth-feel topped with hints of ripe banana peal and tomato seed and a general sweetness masked by its inherent tartness. According to Mustiquian tradition, no caramel or sugar is added to the finished product. Highly Recommended if you are ever in the Grenadines. Or post your Visa Card Number and Expiration Date and someone will send you a sample.

[The Scribe]

I picked up on this story a few days ago, and was not particularly surprised by it. My cousin is a wine wholesaler and I have heard murmurs about this sort of thing for years.

On an unrelated note, VicZinc, couldn't you have found something better than tomato notes. That just sounds unfortunate.
Cheers. - S