{"id":1098,"date":"2019-04-01T14:33:03","date_gmt":"2019-04-01T21:33:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/?p=1098"},"modified":"2019-04-01T14:33:03","modified_gmt":"2019-04-01T21:33:03","slug":"wine-competition-cheating-scandal-exposed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/?p=1098","title":{"rendered":"Wine Competition Cheating Scandal Exposed!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Holy Kurniawan! Just when you thought you heard the last of the Italian Tignanello scandal<\/span><\/a> or Spain\u2019s ros\u00e9 scam <\/span><\/a>or the ceaseless parade of phony labeling in China, this happens here! In an exclusive report for Sostevinobile<\/strong><\/span>, Your West Coast Oenophile<\/strong> has unmasked an insidious scheme that has been gaming prestigious wine competitions here in California and across the United States! More than 25 people were arrested, following an early morning raid by San Benito County sheriffs at the offices of Eli Trojan & Co., a leading wine PR and promotions agency.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Among its notable clients caught up in the sweep was new vintner, Sarah Jessica Parker, who won both a Double Gold and First in Class\u2014 Valdigui\u00e9 ($50 & up) for her inaugural bottling. Parker, who was named Maxim<\/strong><\/em>\u2019s #1 Unsexiest Woman Alive<\/span><\/a> in 2007 without any outside aid, allegedly paid more than $500,000 for Trojan to secure this win at this year\u2019s San Francisco International Wine Competition<\/a><\/span>. \u201cI\u2019m the victim here\u201d she protested. \u201cAll I did was slap my name on a label. Otherwise, I would have known I could have won a medal like anyone else by simply paying the entry fee.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/span><\/span>Another actress who sought Trojan\u2019s help to procure an <\/span><\/span><\/span>award<\/span><\/span><\/span> w<\/span><\/span><\/span>as former teen sensation Mayim Bialik. Currently starring as Amy Farrah Fowler on Big Bang Theory<\/span><\/em><\/a>, Bialik is a neuroscientist (PhD, UCLA) in real life, as well. \u201cGiven my extensive knowledge of hypothalamic activity in patients with Prader\u2013Willi syndrome, you would know that the intricacies of carbonic maceration would be a piece of cake for me. Still, marketing and promotion is a bit outside of my wheelhouse,\u201d she noted. Which may explain her shelling out a healthy six figures for Trojan to garner a medal for her 2018 Pet-Nat White Zinfandel<\/strong> at Dubuque\u2019s prestigious Quad Cities Wine Competition & Corndog Marathon. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Her Big Bang Theory costar Jim Parsons has also ventured into the wine realm with husband Todd Spiewak. \u201cI wanted to make a wine that really reflected my Texas roots,\u201d Parsons explained. \u201cCh\u00e2teau Sheldon<\/strong> is dedicated to making the world\u2019s finest Jalape\u00f1o wine, a daunting task to be sure. So it was critically important that we garner awards from the get-go.\u201d Sure enough, thanks to Trojan\u2019s intervention, their 2017 Spicey Dicey<\/strong>, a cactus pear infused wine captured Best of Show at the Oklahoma State Fair. \u201cIn retrospect, we probably could have won even without the bribe, given there were only eight wines competing.,\u201d he noted. \u201cBut we\u2019re a committed, childless couple. What\u2019s $250,000 to us? It\u2019s not like we have to buy an acceptance at USC!\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But even for $1,000,000, Trojan couldn\u2019t pull off miracles. \u201cI received a call from Roseanne Barr, looking for a win for her Faccia Brutta<\/strong> label. Basically, she was blending cases of Charles Shaw Pinot Grigio<\/strong> and Zinfandel<\/strong>, then repackaging it in cans as her own ros\u00e9. Maybe if they had held a wine competition at Monster Jam<\/a><\/span>, there\u2019d have been a shot. Still, I was happy to take her money, instead of her supplying MAGA<\/span><\/a> caps to Yemeni refugees.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Speaking of Two Buck Chuck<\/strong>, rumors that Fred Franzia had enlisted Eli Trojan, then known as Shelley & Eve<\/span><\/a>, to capture his Chardonnay\u2019s Triple Gold<\/span><\/a> at the 2013 Orange County Fair. \u201cAfter an exhaustive investigation, I can happily report I was completely exonerated,\u201d Franzia beamed. \u201cAnd that was before I sent a case of my new Shaw Organic<\/strong> to my bud Bill Barr!\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

On a final, sad coda to this tawdry scandal, millions of fans were dismayed to learn that the <\/span><\/span><\/span>gold medal awarded the 2018 Vidal Blanc Eiswein<\/strong> from the eponymous Justin Estate<\/strong> in Stratford, <\/span><\/span><\/span>\"\"<\/span><\/span><\/span>Ontario, had been rescinded, following revelation of Bieber\u2019s payoffs to Trojan. \u201cFirst he quits music and now this!\u201d a hardcore Belieber lamented. \u201cIt\u2019s too much too absorb in a single week!\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

However, not everyone felt so sanguine about the former pop star.\u00a0 \u201cHe and Hailey still come in and sit in their pew, holding hands like star-crossed teenagers,\u201d a fellow congregant at LA\u2019s Hillsong Church<\/span><\/a> skeptically noted. \u201cThey hardly appear contrite to me.\u201d But as another ardent imbiber noted, this scandal spoke volumes about the legitimacy of all the medals awarded this year at the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition.<\/span><\/a> \u201cThink about it. What does this say about all of their awards, like the Sparkling Sweepstakes Winner?\u201d
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Holy Kurniawan! Just when you thought you heard the last of the Italian Tignanello scandal or Spain\u2019s ros\u00e9 scam or the ceaseless parade of phony labeling in China, this happens here! In an exclusive report for Sostevinobile, Your West Coast Oenophile has unmasked an insidious scheme that has been gaming prestigious wine competitions here in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1098"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1098\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1145,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1098\/revisions\/1145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sostevinobile.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}