WINE SPECTATOR PROMOTES “BUG SPRAY” WINE

Sunday 24 August 2008

Glossy US magazine, The Wine Spectator has been caught promoting wines its own tasters have described as “bug juice” and “too much paint thinner and varnish”. Although it is the story of a sting on the magazine, it leaves the Spectator's credibility in tatters as the quality of its wine critics, or its restaurant reviewers, has been exposed as suspect at best.

The sting involved wine writer Robin Goldstein entering a virtual restaurant from his imagination, Osteria L’Intrepido of Milan, in the Wine Spectator's high profile annual restaurant Awards of Excellence. The “Reserve” wine list he submitted was made up entirely of Italian wines that the restaurant's own critics had previously panned, yet the non-existant restaurant was given one of the 2008 Awards.

The sting also involved fictitious customer reviews of the restaurant on the Internet, but in spite of the magazine's subsequent hissy fit after its incompetence was revealed, the fact that no inspection of the restaurant was ever undertaken before the award was granted lands a telling charge against the Wine Spectator's public image.

Even more damning is the fact that The Wine Spectator charges entrants in the Awards US$250 each to apply. This delivers US$1 million in revenue to Spectator's publishers, giving the impression that this particular scam is a two-way thing.

FOR THE FULL STORY 

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