And Work of Human Hands

Lifestyle Fruiti of By Margie Collins God’sand work of humanvine hands f wine is “bottled poetry”, we sometimes treat it like doggerel. over $21.9m from the sale, spent the best part of fourS decades In parts of China, South-East Asia and the Sub-Continent, amassing his collection. “Sometimes I was like a kid in a candy they add ice and Coca-Cola to red wine. Some Spaniards store; when I found a wine that I really liked, I just bought too Imix Sprite or Fresca with red wine (tinto de verano); sangria much of it,” he told Forbes. is red wine punch that includes fruit and brandy. A cooling Mr Koch’s exceptionally well-manicured path inevitably Austrian spritz is white wine mixed with soda or fizzy water, crossed with Rudy Kurniawan’s, a Jakarta-born 41-year-old wine while gluhwein is red wine warmed with spices, cloves, star anise collector who styled himself as having “arguably the greatest and cinnamon sticks. Basil Fawlty flatters a well-dressed diner in cellar on earth”. In 2012, Kurniawan was arrested, convicted and Fawlty Towers and unctuously tells him: “I can certainly see that sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment for committing one of the you know your wine. Most of the guests who stay here wouldn’t biggest frauds of all time. While he bought and sold large amounts know the difference between Bordeaux and claret!” of rare wines in the early 2000s, Kurniawan also bought stocks of If, like the legendary California vintner Robert Mondavi, negociant Burgundy and cheap Napa Valley wines, re-labelling, wine to you is “passion, warmth of heart and generosity of spirit, selling and passing them off as high-end Bordeaux vintages. art, culture, the essence of the art of living”, then some care is Counterfeited bottles of Clos Saint-Denis from Domaine due to this divine nectar that helps to render the world bearable, Ponsot – of vintages between 1947 and 1971 – started turning up whose history is older than the transmutation of water into wine at auctions. Laurent Ponsot, head of the house, helped to uncover during the wedding at Cana. the fraud when he told authorities his family only started making the In 2014, Sotheby’s sold a 114-bottle set of Domaine de la wine in 1982. Romanee-Conti in Hong Kong for $1.6m, setting a record for When arrested in his LA lair, FBI agents found wine-tasting one of the most expensive wine lots ever sold at auction. That’s notes, labels, empty bottles, corks, recipes for faking vintage $14,121 per bottle; $1,700 per glass. In 1985, a bottle of Chateau Bordeaux and other counterfeiting materials. Mr Koch eventually Lafite 1787 sold for $156,450; a jeroboam of Chateau Mouton- found out he had between 400 and 500 bottles of fake wines in Rothschild 1945 sold for $310,700 and a Margaux 1787 for his collection he bought from Kurniawan and other fraudsters. It $225,000. Rare bottles of wine – like the Lafite 1787, which had was deeply personal for Mr Koch, who spent millions of dollars the initials Th. J. etched into it – are freighted with fascinating on legal fees pursuing the fraudsters. “I hate being cheated,” he back stories. Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United told Forbes. “There’s a code of silence in the wine industry. I was States, was a voracious oenophile who collected fine wines when not going to take it. With super-fine wines, you can taste the love he was ambassador to France. the vintner had in making it and that to me is almost a religious “Who in their right mind would invest in wine unless they are an experience. What price can you put on love?” Or indeed on wine expert?” asks Paul Lewis of Radio 4’s Money Box. “It’s a bit like gold - as an argument for the existence of God? it may or may not go up and people are gambling on the future price It is said that there may be as many as 10,000 of Kurniawan’s fake of the wine they own, hoping it will be worth more than they paid for bottles still in private collections. Wine-savvy fraudsters are upping it. It provides no income and unless you really know the wine, you their game and, according to wine detectives and authenticators, have no clue when the best time is to sell; it’s not for the amateur.” Nor it is becoming commonplace to find hundreds of empty bottles – for the faint-hearted, even if they have very deep pockets. with their original corks – that once held Bordeaux and Burgundy In 2016, 76-year-old American billionaire Bill Koch sold at vintages, for sale on eBay. Maureen Downey, a wine sleuth, estimates a fever-pitch auction lasting three days nearly half his collection that as many as a fifth of fine wines changing hands around the world of over 43,000 bottles of fine wines. Mr Koch, who pocketed is fake. Susan Barrie, of BBC Radio 4’s documentary The Wine 106 Ship Management International Issue 68 July/August 2017.

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