Back Label - The $250 Trick That Fooled Wine Spectator

2026-06-18 · 5 min · episode 340 · 14 entities

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Entities found in this episode

concepts 10

mentioned Society & Culture concept

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evidence rules-v5
Feed category: Society & Culture
mentioned Arts concept

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evidence rules-v5
Feed category: Arts
mentioned food concept

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evidence rules-v5
Feed category: Food
mentioned Leisure concept

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evidence rules-v5
Feed category: Leisure
mentioned Places & Travel concept

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evidence rules-v5
Feed category: Places & Travel
discusses Society & Culture concept

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evidence rules-v5
Feed category: Society & Culture
discusses Arts concept

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evidence rules-v5
Feed category: Arts
discusses food concept

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evidence rules-v5
Feed category: Food
discusses Leisure concept

0.40

evidence rules-v5
Feed category: Leisure
discusses Places & Travel concept

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evidence rules-v5
Feed category: Places & Travel

persons 2

mentioned Forrest Kelly person

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Feed author/publisher: Forrest Kelly
hosted by Forrest Kelly person

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Feed author/publisher: Forrest Kelly

websites 2

mentioned Hobbies website

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evidence rules-v5
Feed category: Hobbies
discusses Hobbies website

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evidence rules-v5
Feed category: Hobbies

Episode description as stored

The front label said Award of Excellence. The back label said $250 and a voicemail box. In 2008, writer and researcher Robin Goldstein invented a restaurant from scratch — complete with a website, a Milan phone number, and a reserve wine list built almost entirely from Wine Spectator's own lowest-rated Italian wines — to test how seriously the magazine vetted its restaurant wine award. The fictional Osteria L'Intrepido won anyway. Goldstein went public at a wine economists' conference, the story hit the New York Times, the LA Times, and CBS, and Wine Spectator called it a hoax. But one detail stuck: when the magazine called to deliver the good news, they also asked about buying an ad. This episode tells the full story of the scandal that made the wine world question what its most trusted award badge actually means. @thebestwinepod Discover More from The Best 5 Minute Podcast Network: Wine Podcast Music Podcast Travel Podcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.