To get back on track, this is what I think of the restaurants with grossly wrong information about corkage policy, number of offerings, etc.

I think it is reasonable for Wine Spectator to use the honor system whereby the restaurants submit their lists and corkage policies. It is probably cost prohibitive to double check everything secretly and definitively, so the honor system is reasonable. Afterall, you would assume that most restaurant owners are probably honest in this regard. But like anywhere else an honor system is used, there have to be harsh penalties for cheating/lying. If a customer reports a potentially fraudulent posting, WS should seriously investigate, and then officially revoke their status, either permanently, or perhaps for a finite period of time such as 3-5 years. If second chances are allowed after serving your sentence, then clearly a second violation and you are permanently out.

To really make the penalty of lying sting, you can post a list of annual "Stinkers" who received disciplinary action, although I'm sure such punitive actions will be met with frivolous law-suits claiming defamation. Too bad you can't point out a lemon these days without ending up in court. It would, nevertheless, be a great addition to the awards list if you humiliated the liars, so long as your magazine does not mind defending itself in court explaining why you publically called a fraudulent businessman a liar.

One thing WS could do would be to publish a list of states where corkage is illegal, and, even lobby to change laws to be more wine friendly, including the corkage laws, shipping laws, etc.

It should be fairly easy to determine in what states corkage is legal and where it is not.
The goofy law in Maryland is that if a restaurant does not have a liquor license, then it is ok to bring wine there, charge corkage. If, however, the restaurant has a license, then corkage is illegal.
The purpose of the law is to protect the companies who distribute wine to restaurants without regard to logic or what is best for the citizenry or to freedom.

Maybe WS should have two forms, one with a corkage fee question for states where it is legal and one without for the crackpot states, mine included. Makes for a pain in the ass for WS but prevents this problem. Think VA, where there are 3 places that are allowed to have corkage fees, if you buy the bottle from the attached shop.

I'd like to second Irwin's call for a list of states forbidding corkage. It would be easy for WS's editors to correct any errors on corkage state by state.

But what I'd really like to see is recognition for what these 'Awards' really are - Paid advertising disguised as an 'achievement'. It's like the Bush administration paying columnists to promote No Child Left Behind.

Since these 'awards' are nothing more than a sham, I'll continue to use Zagat and other sources for recommendations on wine-friendly restaurants.

can he say that?

You can't trust a damn thing it that listing. Most of it seems to be lies or other wishful thinking. Legal Sea Food in Tyson's for example doesn't have anything approaching the gradiosity of the list they claim (the wine list consists of maybe 30 pedestrian wines plus about six bottles of the "ultra prestige" and hardly anything in between). It's certainly not 210.

And of course they continue to give the highest award to the Wild Boar in Nashville which went belly up at the beginning of the summer.

quote:

I will be getting legislation introduced in the State Legislature next year to permit corkage. It will probably be a county by county thing, exempting counties from the prohibition. I'll work on Baltimore City and Baltimore County. Gentleman Farmer---no point in working on Harford County since there aren't any decent restaurants there anyway. Purple Haze and Klymkev, you have Montgomery county. I'll get you in touch with a legislator there if you don't know one.
Comet Spider can help with Baltimore County and Festiva, you have Howard County.
I got a letter from Governor Bobby, who says that if the law makes it to his desk, he'll think about whether or not to sign it. Rather uncommittal. (Of course, the national flower of most politicians is the hedge).

Count me in to work on the Montgomery County legislators. Of course, the county will be against it, as they are the only legal wholesaler in the county and have a tendency to go after restaurants who don't buy from them, so letting someone bring in wine that wasn't purchased thru the county, are you kidding?

I once asked Robert Parker why he didn't use his position and influence to push MD about allowing wine to be shipped here. He responded that the wholesale lobby poured millions into the legislature to make sure it didn't happen. Be prepared for the same to happen with any corkage bill that gets introduced, they don't want any crack in the armor.

Ron:

Wild Boar closed long after the issue went to print. Fyi, we have reported on it here.

The Games that Distributors and Producers Play

http://www.torbwine.com/rr/amesdistributors.shtml

apparently not only distributors & producers

but retailers and restaurants

yes, customers play many strange and probably the most amusing games of all