On the Ledge Part 6: The Smell of Money: Wine Medals and the Big Wine Drinker Swindle!

As a former East German spy dedicated to the advancement of the proletarian revolution that has begun to fail miserably I have tasted the profits “Truth in the Vine” have been sending our way. Swindle wine drinkers for profit in the ratings game was a huge incentive to maximize profitability through medal awarding events. A winery that realizes a 90-point rating has a Willy Wonka ticket to the grand sweepstakes but gold and silver medals at a wine “competition” is even more profitable. Charge an entry fee, a fee for tables to taste wine, a set-up fee, a dismantling fee, a fee for labels to attach the winners is a gold mine. The stupid wine drinking public can be manipulated so easily without even thinking they have been duped. The small producers can’t afford our exorbitant fees. When I say our fees, we set up numerous benevolent and noble companies to sponsor these competitions! Of course we didn’t advertise every winery wins a medal. And the poor judges trying far too many wines with their burnt-out palates were dupes. These judges were trying at times over a hundred wines a day. My professor at the Karl Marx University in Dresden had studied the efficacy of wine competition judges and opined that a professional taster was only effective with 46 wines in a day punctuated by breaks including full lunches and dinners. To hell with that as when you taste the blood of profit you want more and more. The wine judges were dupes. The public were dupes. Our bank accounts swelled and the public lapped it up as did the Liquor Discontrol Board of Ontario. Sell. Sell. Money. Money. There are thousands of suckers born every minute!