Magazine Honors Non-Existent Restaurant

The restaurant is called "Osterio L'Intrepido". It got Wine Spectator Magazine's Award of Excellence.

It turns out, "Osterio L'Intrepido" is Italian for "Fearless Critic", the restaurant guide series written by Robin Goldstein. Goldstein sent in an application for the award to Wine Spectator - a magazine which many vino-philes consider the pinnace of information and taste.

It's also the magazine which handed out the award. Goldstein appeard at a Portland wine festival to announce that it was all a hoax - that he made up a fake restaurant, located it in Milan, Italy, sent in the application and won the award to prove a point.

And that point is that there are wine critics everywhere - on television, in newspapers, in magazines, even in individual stores, telling us what to drink. What it comes down to, however, is your own taste. Don't believe the critics; believe your palate.

"I think everyday consumers sort to come to terms with that fact they will stop being so scared by the wine shelf, and just start trusting their own tastes."

But the people who operate the magazine think the bad taste belongs to Goldstein, whose methods they call... well... tasteless. On its forum site, Wine Spectator decries it as a "fraud" and a "scam", and defended its actions and attempts at verification.