From the “You Can’t Make This Stuff Up” department and Dr. Vino:
If you decided to get a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence for you restaurant wine list, what would you need? The answer according to Robin Goldstein is $250 and Microsoft Word. Restaurant not actually required. Goldstein, the author of The Wine Trials, has a posting up on a new web site describing how he invented a restaurant name, Osteria l’Intrepido, a riff on “fearless.” Then he typed up a menu (“a fun amalgamation of somewhat bumbling nouvelle-Italian recipes”) and then put together a wine list, and submitted both to Wine Spectator-along with the $250 fee. The list was approved and given an Award of Excellence (see screenshot).
Nice. Either this is a hoax or WS has already wiped the listing from their website. I couldn’t find the original.
