20 THE WORLD OFFINE O fine-wine market practices intoday’s provenance andtrading questions about that hasraised serious effects ofanaffair assesses thelong-term the witnessstand,and biggest namestake saw three ofBurgundy’s court proceedings that reports onthedramatic fraud. counts ofmailandwire Kurniawan onmultiple conviction ofRudy Christmas, withthe in theweekbefore courtroom its denouementina the century”reached The “winecrimeof (nouveau) asn of onefi btls of bottles counterfeit off was Kurniawanpassing that discovering of shock the recalled he map, large a on Morey- out St-Denis,where hisdomaine islocated, pointing in After Courthouse Manhattan. Federal Moynihan P Daniel the at courtroom the in the jury an to region famed give the of overview Ponsot Laurent producer After Rudy: What can the fine-wine world unaa til hs past this December, I watched Burgundy trial Rudy Kurniawan the of day fourth the n Elin McCoy learn from the Kurniawan case?

days of testimony and only a couple of couple a halfonly testimonyand of days a and seven after 18, December eliciting labels, chuckles in the courtroom. of thousands with home those his in walls the paper to planned he’d perhaps and scapegoat a beyond and victim a offer was client his suggesting to little had attorney, overwhelming. Huang—was Wang Zhen isKurniawan—whose namereal to thevineyard untilthe1980s. access have didn’t they because the made have couldn’t domaine his testified, winemaker the as But Denis. St- Clos Ponsot 1971 and 1962, 1959, of March vintageswerebottles the Among in 2012. it Kurniawan’s raided they in when foundhome FBI the that Romanée-Conti, of many labels, fake plastic clear and bags with thousands of newly produced corks and bottles ( courtroom who wasincharge ofthe investigation. fraud, collectible and art on specialist Koch and agent James Wynne, the FBI’s billionaireWilliamandcrusader fraud anti-wine- included trial the at figures prominent Other counterfeiter. wine a against case criminal a prosecuted had government US the time first the Kurniawan v America of States among landmark the of were highlights the Roumier of G Roumier Domaine Christophe and Conti, Romanée- la de Domaine of Villaine de motion. in case forAprilan2008New York saletheset to KurniawanCondit &MerrallAcker house auction by consigned wines day.thatstandwitnessFake the Ponsot on winemakers famous three of first the real thing. as reds expensive Ponsot’s Domaine ISSUE 43 2014 o t a n srrs ta on that surprise no was it So defense the Mooney, Jerome against presented evidence The the in table a on evidence The Aubert Ponsot, of testimonies The the was Ponsot that fitting was It right icue fraudulent included ) United trial,

a 2 yas l, n so began soon and old, years 25 Los was the he when 2001, on in scene wine Angeles emerged he Chinese, socialized withKurniawan. and businessmen—who successful several directors Hollywood including aficionados— wine wealthy of coterie the worry to seem didn’t background improbable this But suspicious. was I 2005, in back story a-couple-of-years out-of-nowhere-to-major-collector-in- wines old rare fordecrease? I doubt it. demand Will trusting?and gullible less become and of fine wine, authenticity is everything. auction houses to retailers. In the world high-end wine world, from collectors to Itshould give pause toevery part ofthe public. story.Televisionthe CBS carried Even very very, wines counterfeit high- this profile case means for the what wine world. just pondering been save my to wines, but to warn people.” not It’s fakers. to out’ say‘watch to way a “It’s testimony. his after courtroomthe outside me Ponsottold smoking-gun thewines inthe2008Acker auction. to who Ponsot Barzelay, Don alerted Doug collectors and Cornwell including against others, crusading many for as been well as wines,counterfeit long has who Koch, Hernandez, Jason attorney US assistant Wynne,vindication—for was course, of effect, immediate The Vindication and vilification Sentencing appeal. is scheduled for would April 24. he said Mooney fines. plus prison, in years 40 to up facesHe wines. fake with connection in fraud Kurniawan guilty foundof mail fraud juryand wire the deliberation, of hours n noein hs prns are parents whose Indonesian An Kurniawan’s heard first I When warning the heed collectors Will of issue the made it’s all, of First I’ve Kurniawan’s conviction, Since crusade,” my of end the is “This

Photography Stan Honda / AFP / Getty Images ISSUE 43 2014 THE WORLD OF FINEWINE 21 This article from The World of Fine Wine may not be sold, altered in any way, or circulated without this statement. Every issue of The World of Fine Wine features coverage of the world’s finest wines in their historical and cultural context, along (nouveau) with news, reviews, interviews, and comprehensive international auction results. For further information and to subscribe to The World of Fine Wine, please visit www.worldo!newine.com or call +44 1795 414 681 amassing a vast collection of expensive later defending him on wine websites. very types of wines Kurniawan faked. wines, especially rare Burgundies. His Those who had early doubts—such The lust to possess something that very nickname, Dr Conti, reflected his love as attorney Don Cornwell, few can have motivates wealthy new of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti who met him in 2002 and later avoided collectors, especially in China. At one wines. After only a few years of tasting him—say they were reluctant to voice Hong Kong auction, a Chinese wine experience, he’d developed a reputation accusations publicly because they lover confided to me that he craved for having an astounding palate, was were afraid of defamation lawsuits. As a bottle of 1945 Romanée-Conti, no said to be spending $1 million a month more and more suspect bottles could matter where it came from. on old wines, and was beginning to be traced to Kurniawan, though, other The other big question unanswered move markets. collectors lost faith. by the trial is whether Kurniawan Where did Kurniawan’s initial Successful people with big egos worked alone or whether he had bankroll come from? That big question rarely want to admit they’ve been financial partners or co-conspirators remained unanswered at the trial. fooled. Wine advisor Charles Curtis with deep insider connections. Given Though he’d told various tales about his MW, former head of Christie’s Asia, the wine-counterfeiting factory in his family’s fortune, no one knows the truth. told me that in his experience many home, he was clearly the one creating Later, he began borrowing significant people who own fakes just don’t want labels and bottles. But it’s hard to sums, often from collector friends. to know it. Those who bought from believe he didn’t have some help. Will Eventually he began acting as a Kurniawan now have to face the reality there be further indictments based on dealer, funneling old wines he claimed that some of their most prized wines what the FBI uncovered during the to have unearthed in mysterious are actually worth nothing. What may long investigation? I’m guessing yes. European cellars to friends like prevent them from dumping the wines Fraudulent wine is hardly restaurateur David Doyle, in the market in the near term is the something new, but the Kurniawan who paid him more than $3 million fear of a continuing investigation. conviction confirms, yet again, that for wines, some of which turned out The moral of the Kurniawan trial is auction houses need to take the problem to be fake. In 2006, Kurniawan gained the age-old adage that if something even more seriously. While Sotheby’s even more notoriety when he managed sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Serena Sutcliffe MW declared publicly Laurent Ponsot, a key figure in the prosecution of Rudy Kurniawan, speaks to the media after his testimony at the Daniel P Moynihan Federal Courthouse in New York to sell $35 million worth of wine at almost a decade ago that the wine two record-breaking Acker Merrall & Buyer beware world was awash with fakes, others in bottles of Romanée-Conti. Europol Burgundy producers, and a few Private wine advisers such as Condit auctions in New York. Vigilant wine lovers contributed the industry were long reluctant to tracked a network that included links California cult wine producers, such Downey and Curtis may be the biggest Maybe the elite collectors who significantly to Kurniawan’s downfall. discuss the issue at all. Several auction to Russia, Hong Kong, Belize, and as Harlan and Colgin, had begun beneficiaries of this well-publicized drank the Bordeaux and Burgundies he Collector Doug Barzelay alerted Ponsot houses, including Christie’s, Acker Switzerland. The Dijon prosecutor’s trying to protect the authenticity of trial if worried wealthy collectors brought to lavish restaurant dinners to questionable bottles being offered Merrall & Condit, Zachys, and office counted at least 400 bottles their wines. I hope the trial inspires now decide that it is worth hiring an (for which he usually picked up the tab) in Acker’s April 2008 New York auction Spectrum, sold wines consigned by that had brought in about ¤2 million. many more to follow suit. expert to vet bottles. were star-struck by the mystique of at Cru restaurant, prompting Ponsot to Kurniawan or one of his representatives. Because prices for rare old wines A half-dozen security companies Mark Solomon, who heads up wine hyper-rare wines that are not easy to insist that Kapon withdraw the wines. Right now, just because one house have skyrocketed, the payoff for selling now offer dozens of high-tech auctions for North Carolina-based get your hands on regardless of your Seated at a nearby table, I suddenly rejects a particular wine as suspect, it fakes is huge. And given the Internet anti-counterfeiting solutions, which Leland Little, launched Truebottle.com, resources. Some of the wines that noticed that Ponsot, his curly hair pulled doesn’t mean another won’t sell it. and desktop-publishing software, it’s include holograms and electronic chips a website with auction prices and a Kurniawan bought and offered were back in a ponytail, was watching from Retailers and private sellers may easier than ever to research labels embedded in labels and the bottle, as database of high-resolution label and apparently legitimate, and perhaps his a plush banquette. account for an even larger number of and create fake ones. That’s why I well as tamper-proof seals on capsules. bottle images, two years ago, for generosity forestalled questions about Don Cornwell and a few others counterfeit wines. Maureen Downey, believe that Kurniawan’s conviction Last spring, Jacques Thienpont showed collectors to consult if they suspected the provenance of others. Wearing scrutinized catalogs for labels that who was also in the courtroom, told will have only a limited impact on off his new system, which works on a bottle wasn’t authentic. “No one was Hermès silk shirts, a Patek Philippe didn’t look right, lobbied auction me that most of the fakes she’s seen stopping the counterfeiters. Those in the basis of near-field communication. looking at the images until stories of watch, and driving a Ferrari, Kurniawan houses to withdraw wines when they since starting her company in 2006 the USA may just send most of their A Selinko app in a smartphone “reads” Kurniawan came out,” he says. Some exuded the über-confident image that were convinced suspect bottles came have come from retailers and brokers. efforts to China. a tag behind the label to access unique people have suggested that he’s actually fits in with a high-testosterone wine from Kurniawan, and even went to the And then there are private transactions. A five-part series by counterfeit- information about the wine inside. helping the counterfeiters by providing culture of excess. FBI. Cornwell reported his findings Kurniawan had sourced more than specialist lawyer Nick Bartman, The most counterfeited older models, but Little doesn’t see it that way. In other words, a surprising number on what is now a 183-page thread on $3 million worth of wine for published last fall on JancisRobinson. wines, however, have no such Perhaps the best way to stop of otherwise smart people allowed wineberserkers.com. restaurateur David Doyle, according com, charts how quickly many in protection, though high-tech methods counterfeits would be an industry- themselves to be duped. As wine Despite the conviction, wine to court testimony. Among them were China have moved on from wildly can help identify whether they are funded nonprofit organization that consultant Maureen Downey, owner of connoisseurs continue to splurge on wines Ponsot said the domaine had obvious fake labels, with the name of authentic or not. A few weeks before investigates, maintains image databases Chai Consulting, once pointed out to dubious old wines. Some may be more never made. a Bordeaux château misspelled, to very the trial, I watched wine appraiser and lists of fake wines, and provides me, the circle around Dr Conti, which cautious; provenance appears more In fact, no one really knows how sophisticated copies, even down to William Edgerton shine an ultra-violet third-party authentification. included Acker Merrall & Condit CEO important than ever at auction, and big the problem is. authentic-looking glass bottles. flashlight (they cost a mere $10) on a Unfortunately, it seems way too John Kapon, essentially lent Kurniawan bottles direct from château cellars One of the several high-profile 1945 Mouton Rothschild label to early to refer to Kurniawan’s case as legitimacy by publishing their tasting command ever-higher prices. But European trials and investigations last High-tech protection show that the paper contained optical “the wine crime of the century,” as notes of his wines, praising him in auction houses still loudly trumpet year exposed an Italian father and son, Even before Kurniawan was convicted, brightening agents that weren’t used in many have. I have a feeling that there newsletters and auction catalogs, and their record-breaking numbers for the who were allegedly producing fake Honda / AFP Getty Images Stan Photography Bordeaux first-growth châteaux, top paper until nearly a decade later. will be more to come.

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