What Do Wine Magazine Reviews Mean?
You may have heard about the controversy over restaurant listings in Wine Spectator back in August 2008. Each year, the magazine issues awards for restaurants with great wine lists. If you’re a wino and like to drink when you travel, (and who among us doesn’t) it’s wonderful to check these places out. A wine critic decided to see what would happen if he created a phony restaurant with a less-than-stellar wine list. He launched a restaurant website and submitted the application — with the $250 entry fee — to the magazine. Even though the wine list contained a fair number of clunkers that Wine Spectator itself had ranked poorly, the non-existent restaurant still received the magazine’s award of excellence (it appeared in the August 2008 print issue, but is no longer on the magazine’s website). It turns out that of the nearly 4,500 restaurants that applied, only 319 didn’t get an award or good mention of some kind. One might argue that the applicants are self-selecting in terms of quality
