How do you get a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence?
What would happen if someone created a fake restaurant website, with a fake menu, populated the wine list with less than stellar choices, and submitted everything (along with a $250 entry fee), for a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence? This is exactly what Robin Goldstein, author of The Wine Trials did. For his trouble, the fake restaurant won an Award of Excellence.
Mr. Goldstein presented the result at the meeting of the American Association of Wine Economists, which was held in Portland last week.
Keeping in mind that it is pretty difficult to find any wines scored below 70, Goldstein’s list is particularly entertaining. Some of his choices:
BRUNELLO DI MONTALCINO “LA CASA” 1982 (Toscana) Tenuta Caparzo 200,00 €
Wine Spectator rating: 67 points. “…Smells barnyardy and tastes decayed. Not what you’d hope for…”CABERNET SAUVIGNON “I FOSSARETTI” 1995 (Piemonte) Poderi Bertelli 120,00 €
Wine Spectator rating: 58 points. “Something wrong here. Of four samples provided, two were dark in color, but tasted metallic and odd…”SASSICAIA 1976 (Toscana) Tenuta San Guido 250,00 €
Wine Spectator rating: 65 points. “…Even Sassicaia could not apparently escape the wet weather of this memorably bad vintage in Tuscany. It lacks harmony, having oxidized…”
From Mr. Goldstein’s website:
Osteria L’Intrepido won the Award of Excellence, as published in print in the August 2008 issue of Wine Spectator. (Not surprisingly, the Osteria’s listing has since been removed from Wine Spectator‘s website.) I presented this result at the meeting of the American Association of Wine Economists in Portland, Oregon, on Friday, August 15.
It’s troubling, of course, that a restaurant that doesn’t exist could win an Award of Excellence. But it’s also troubling that the award doesn’t seem to be particularly tied to the quality of the supposed restaurant’s “reserve wine list,” even by Wine Spectator‘s own standards. Although the main wine list that I submitted was a perfectly decent selection from around Italy meeting the magazine’s numerical criteria, Osteria L’Intrepido’s “reserve wine list” was largely chosen from among some of the lowest-scoring Italian wines in Wine Spectator over the past few decades
You can read the details, see a copy of the Wine Spectator page, and read the incredible menu he created, along with the terrible wine list here. It’s great stuff, and once again, casts doubt on the validity of Wine Spectator’s system.
Thanks to Kevin Allman over at blogofneworleans.com for the tip that this article was up.
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10 Responses to “How do you get a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence?”Leave a Reply
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http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/550392
Here’s some discussion on Chowhound.
For Wine Spectator’s side of the story, please read this:
http://snipurl.com/WineSpectatorscam [forums_winespectator_com]
The Wine “Spectacle” is just that. The only award that is tough to get at first is the Grand Award. This is the only award that is visually inspecetd by a judge. Other that that, as has been stated, $250 fee, plus a “copy” of your list starts the process.
Grand award can easily be obtained if your ownership “invests” in the cellar. One just has to build DEPTH in vintages and either build a well rounded wine list, or a deep concentration of the wines if a certain country . When Pebble Beach resort was sold/bought. The new owners told their wine buyer Joe Nase – ( who won a “Grand Award” at Lespinasse ) win us a “grand Award”. He spent the owners money and sourced through auction and private cellars and within two years got his second “grand Award”. He was “let go” immediately following this.
Alto just got the “Grand Award” they did this by building depth and length in vintage. One can go to Alto and purchase a ’34 LaTache if one’s wallet allows.
Grand Awards are the only “Spectacle” award to covet. Personally most people in the industry read the “Spectacle” to buy the “catchy” wines that the masses know about. Quarterly, is a much better read, and more informative or for Burgundy read the Vine by CLive Coates or the Burghound by Allan Meadows. You learn a lot more that way.
To be fair, you should also link to Wine Spectator’s response:
http://forums.winespectator.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/6826053161/m/835102245
Especially note the following:
“On his blog, Goldstein posted a small selection of the wines on this list, along with their poor ratings from Wine Spectator. This was his effort to prove that the list – even if real – did not deserve an award.
However, this selection was not representative of the quality of the complete list that he submitted to our program. Goldstein posted reviews for 15 wines. But the submitted list contained a total of 256 wines. Only 15 wines scored below 80 points.
Fifty-three wines earned ratings of 90 points or higher (outstanding on Wine Spectator’s 100-point scale) and a total of 102 earned ratings of 80 points (good) or better. (139 wines were not rated.) Overall, the wines came from many of Italy’s top producers, in a clear, accurate presentation.”
This seems to be a fairly significant piece of the story and one that changes my initial impressions from the post, FD.
Twitter: pdxfooddude
says:
I posted the Wine Spectator response as soon as they sent it to me. However, while they bring up some points, I don’t think it really changes anything. I don’t care how big the wine list is, if they have that much crap on it, they obviously didn’t look very closely. The same thing with their attempts to verify the restaurant. Give me a break, they don’t have admins in Italy?
This is why people should read reviews from those they can trust. Big magazines are purchased – it is the nature of the beast. Check out enobytes or the oregonian’s wine blog – at least these folks actually taste the wine whether or not they are getting a check in their hand for doing so.
I’m no wine geek, and have never paid attention to whether or not a restaurant’s wine list has award-winning credentials. But I do appreciate a good bottle now and then, and I’ve occasionally picked up a copy of Wine Spectator when planning a shopping trip for a nice dinner or event, as their reviews can be informative and interesting. But now, seeing that Spectator doles out awards solely for cash, I have to wonder if their ratings are bought as well. I’m guessing that I already know that answer.
Good thing the wine steward at my local store is so knowledgeable, honest, and helpful. Thanks to Mr. Goldstein’s revelation, I’m going to be buying my wine based on her recommendations.
my focus is mostly NW wines (as this is what I can actually get out and taste… ) and as such, I have found Wine Press Northwest to be great periodical for reviews, reccomendations, etc. all their tastings are double blind, and no BS point scale…
This kind of reporting is one more reason I love this site! Great job getting this out there.