Wine Spectator Awards scammed or a farce?

Last week, Osteria L'Intrepido, in Milan Italy, won Wine Spectator magazine's award of excellence, even though the wine list included  a 1993 Amarone Classico Gioe S. Sofia, which the magazine once compared to "paint thinner and nail varnish.

Trouble is, the restaurant doesn't exist - except online.

Robin Goldstein, a wine critic, created a website for his bogus restaurant and submitted an application for the Wine Spectator Blushing with Embarassment?award along with the $250 fee and a copy of his menu and wine list. He described the menu as "a fun amalgamation of somewhat bumbling nouvelle-Italian recipes," and included wines the magazine previously reviewed negatively.

Goldstein set out to prove that the magazine cared more about the entry fee than honoring restaurants. "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 Association of Wine Economists meeting in Portland, Ore.

Wine Spectator Executive Editor Thomas Matthews said in a posting on the New York-based magazine's Web site: "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."

While the award isn't exactly a gold medal, it can be the lifeblood of a restaurant struggling to establish a solid reputation. But this year, nearly 4,500 restaurants spent $250 each to apply or reapply for the Wine Spectator award, and all but 319 won some kind of award. That's more than $1 million in annual revenue.

The fake restaurant has been removed from the Wine Spectator's website, but you'll still find it in the print edition of the August issue.

"This gets down to what the Wine Spectator is all about," said Tom Priko, a Santa Barbara industry consultant. "It's not exactly Wine for Dummies; it's more Wine for the Gullible."

The magazine has been awarding "prestigious honors" for more than 20 years. Obviously they don't visit all of them - which make their awards completely useless. Reviewing a menu online should never replace a visit to the restaurant.

My vote is on restaurant review sites that rely on people who actually eat at the restaurant to tell it like is without the sugar-coating.

Restaurantica, our sister site, doesn't allow restaurant owners to manipulate ratings or have negative reviews removed. No matter what kind of experience you have, your opinion counts. Granted, you'll still have to filter and weigh each review, but at least you'll know they aren't there because of an advertising campaign thinly veiled as a legitimate contest.

Do you rely on online reviews to find restaurants, hotels, spas?