So I’m sitting in a Peets Coffee in Marin County, CA waiting to meet a friend I made on Facebook thumbing through the wine section of the San Francisco Chronicle (to all you Rush Limbaugh listening, Ford Econoline driving, Toby Keith worshipping conservatives, yes, I was a Volvo away from being your worst liberal nightmare) when I came across a great story describing a scam perpetrated against the Wine Spectator.
I’m not a “gotcha” kind of guy. Even though I’m often guilty of schadenfreude, I take no joy in seeing those misled into something being vilified for it in the public square. Whether it’s the politician forced to explain a statement they made ten years before on “Meet the Press” to even the creepy low life caught with a four- pack of wine coolers speaking to a girl they think is fifteen years old, only to have an equally creepy Chris Hansen slither from the shadows like Dick Dastardly, with us, the audience, his snickering sidekick, Muttley.
But of course these people need to be exposed, caught for doing things if not outright illegal, than surely worthy of scrutiny, as in the case of Wine Spectator.
Each year the magazine gives out awards for noteworthy restaurant wine lists, and for those that meet their editor’s criteria, special certificates of excellence are given that these restaurants can use to print on menus, post up on their websites, etc.
Making matters worse for WS is that they charge for the privilege to be considered for their prestigious awards, $250.00 per submission (of which they received over 4000). For those scoring at home, that’s over a million dollars in revenue (not gross mind you, I’m sure there are many expenses associated with this issue).
Where the story gets interesting though is not that the scammer, a writer who blogged about his treachery on his very own Word Press (yeah!) page, filled his bogus wine list with the world’s great wines, thereby ensuring his place in the Wine Spectator Wine list Hall of Fame. No, the genius of this scam was that the list included some of the highest priced, worst scored Italian wines the magazine has ever reviewed.
Example:
AMARONE CLASSICO “LA FABRISERIA” 1998 (Veneto) Tedeschi 185,00 €: Wine Spectator rating: 60 points. “…Unacceptable. Sweet and cloying. Smells like bug spray…
With Raid staining the crisp white shirts from New York to Milan, the magazine’s editors were quick to cry foul, citing their victimhood in this “elaborate hoax” but really, could the White House press secretary for W sound any sillier, claiming they’ve been reminded that “no one is completely immune to fraud.”
The more I’ve thought about this story the less I feel sorry for the magazine. Could they have been expected to review 4000 entries accurately, maybe not, I’ll give them that. But perhaps, instead of cashing 4000 checks they should have only done so for those restaurants that were truly verifiable, with wine lists that were exactly what they should have been to receive recognition that is then used to take our money as a result.
In this case, Wine Spectator isn’t being duped. We are.
