at NYMag.com, Benjamin Wallace wrote:Even at Rudy Kurniawan's coming-out party in September 2003, there were questionable bottles of wine.
A score of Southern California’s biggest grape nuts had gathered at the restaurant Melisse in Santa Monica that Friday for a $4,800-a-head vertical tasting of irresistible rarities provided by Kurniawan: Pétrus in a dozen vintages, reaching as far back as 1921, in magnums.
Although Pétrus is now among the most famous wines in the world, it gained its exalted status relatively recently; before World War II, it was virtually unheard of, and finding large-format bottles that had survived from the twenties bordered on miraculous. Paul Wasserman, the son of prominent Burgundy importer Becky Wasserman, is something like wine royalty, but before this event, the oldest Pétrus he had tasted was from 1975.
Nonetheless, two bottles left him scratching his head. The 1947 lacked the unctuousness of right-bank Bordeaux from that legendary vintage, and the 1961 struck him as “very young.” He briefly entertained the idea of “possible fakes”—’61 Pétrus in magnum has fetched up to $28,440 at auction—and jotted, in his notes on the ’47, “If there’s one bottle I have serious doubts about tonight, this is it.”
at NYMag.com, Benjamin Wallace wrote:That Kurniawan had assembled such wines, and such winos, and was considered an expert at all about wine in 2003 was extraordinary, considering that just two years earlier he’d been a newbie. But in the moneyed stratosphere of hyperrare collectible wine, merely opening one’s wallet is often lionized as an act of courage or virtue.
Kurniawan has dated his wine epiphany to 2001, when, celebrating his father’s birthday at a restaurant on Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, he drank a 1996 Opus One. Twenty-five at the time and living in the Los Angeles suburb of Arcadia, Kurniawan became enthralled, and was soon combing L.A. for the wine, quickly amassing 200 bottles. He started attending weekly tastings at the Red Carpet, a wine store in Glendale. Early the following year, at a charity auction in Paso Robles, he made a stir when, bidding on a hotly contested lot of the cult California Syrah Sine Qua Non, he simply held his paddle aloft until he won.
at NYMag.com, Benjamin Wallace wrote:The following month, there was a breakthrough in a civil case Bill Koch had filed in 2009 against Kurniawan: After years of procedural bickering, a court referee cleared the way for discovery to proceed. The FBI had been building its own case against Kurniawan, and had determined that he had been living in the country illegally since 2003, when his application for asylum had been denied. Now concerned that he was a flight risk, they filed for an arrest warrant. At dawn on March 8, a half-dozen FBI agents arrived at his house in Arcadia.
Kurniawan answered the door in his pajamas. The only other person in the house was his elderly mother. Hours later, when the FBI searched the house, they found thousands of wine labels for top wines, including 1950 Pétrus and 1947 Lafleur, Lafite, and Romanée-Conti. There were hundreds of old and new corks, and a mechanical device for inserting them. There were lead capsules and sealing wax and rubber stamps with vintages and châteaux names, such as 1899 and 1900 Latour and 1992 Screaming Eagle. There were glue and stencils and pattern scissors and warm white Ingres drawing paper. There were detailed instructions for fabricating labels for 1962 Domaine Ponsot Clos de la Roche. There were bottles of cheap Napa Valley wine markered with the names of old Bordeaux wines they were apparently intended to impersonate, and there were more bottles soaking in the kitchen sink, their labels ready to be removed.
at NYMag.com, Benjamin Wallace wrote:Last week, Kurniawan was indicted in New York. He faces four counts of mail and wire fraud, and jail time of up to 100 years. Certain corners of the wine world are waiting for the inevitable revelations about Kurniawan and his magic cellar with urgency, but also dread. If his rise had demonstrated anything, it was how easily the urge to know more can be overpowered by the temptation to know less. In a recent phone interview, Rob Rosania, one of the staunchest Kurniawan apologists, spoke vaguely of his “disappointment” with “what has transpired in sum total” but seemed resistant to the evidence of his own eyes, referring to “allegedly the quote-unquote proof.”
mhill95149 wrote:Just sold the shots to CNBC TV show American Greed (produced here in Chicago by Kurtis Productions)
mhill95149 wrote:I'm not sure if the mods have issues with links to other boards but here is the link to A great thread on this subject
mhill95149 wrote:LOL!
I'm not sure if the mods have issues with links to other boards but here is the link to A great thread on this subject
http://wineberserkers.com/forum/viewtop ... =1&t=61172
Don's continued efforts are really going to shake things up in the auction marketplace
On the last page of the thread he details how wine critic Allen Meadows was under contract with an auction house that was selling the wines of the accused.
Santander wrote:My favorite thing about Wine Berserkers is all of the admirably knowledgeable elder statesman of wine using animated emoticons all over the place, including in the middle of ad hominem attacks. Thanks to you both for the great story and thread links.
Siun wrote:Just wanted to say Thanks Mel for the link to the Wine Beserker's thread on this story ... during a rather harrowing week of overwork plus moving apts, reading through that thread was my daily reward. Just an amazing tale and fascinating to read as events unfolded. I do find the emoticon usage rather ... surprising but a lot of good storytellers there and so much knowledge. Truly fascinating. I'm about to read Billionaire's Vinegar next - reading the earlier reports on Royal, Parker, etc and seeing how closely it parallels this latest ... wow.
budrichard wrote:I had previously read the article and its quite sobering.
This type of fakery is prevelent in EVERY type of collectable.
It's most prevelent when you have someone with a lot of resources that does not want to invest the time and effort to be able to discern a fake and them relies on 'Experts' to sell him the collectble.
I have never purchased wine at auction preferring to peruse the reputable wine shops and order futures. But the wine business is not what it was and I stopped futures with the 2000 Bordeaux and 2001 Sauternes. The valuation of the 2001 Sauterne increased so much that I was concerned that I may not get it but Sam's delivered.
Right now our favorite wine is Columbia Crest Two Vines by the case from Binney's.
As for other collectables, unless I commission a piece directly from the maker, if I purchase, it is coly after study to make my own decisions. In some cases, you simply cannot quantitatively evaluate to make a rational decision. In that case, you don't purchase.-Dick
mhill95149 wrote:re-sold the photos to CBS News and the story ran this morning
CBS video
Gypsy Boy wrote:Here's a quote from the article cited above: "His lawyer said he doesn't want to go back to Indonesia because his wealthy, ethnic Chinese family, has owned a beer destruction business in the predominantly Muslim country, has been subjected to discrimination."
Okay, I'll bite: what's a "beer destruction business"?
Gypsy Boy wrote:Here's a quote from the article cited above: "His lawyer said he doesn't want to go back to Indonesia because his wealthy, ethnic Chinese family, has owned a beer destruction business in the predominantly Muslim country, has been subjected to discrimination."
Okay, I'll bite: what's a "beer destruction business"?