Uh oh... This can't be good.

Robin Goldstein created a fake restaurant with a fake menu, and submitted it to the Wine Spectator awards committee.

...and she won the Award of Excellence.

As part of the research for an academic paper I’m currently working on about standards for wine awards, I submitted an application for a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence. I named the restaurant “Osteria L’Intrepido” (a play on the name of a restaurant guide series that I founded, Fearless Critic). I submitted the fee ($250), a cover letter, a copy of the restaurant’s menu (a fun amalgamation of somewhat bumbling nouvelle-Italian recipes), and a wine list.

Osteria L’Intrepido won the Award of Excellence, as published in print in the August 2008 issue of Wine Spectator.

It’s troubling, of course, that a restaurant that doesn’t exist could win an Award of Excellence.

That's a bit of an understatement.

h/t to Jason.