Rudy Kurniawan trial: fine piece of background probing by Mike Steinberger

 Evidence of alleged counterfeiting material seized by the FBI 

when they raided Rudy Kurniawan's apartment in March 2012

As the jury in the Rudy Kurniawan trial is due to start to consider its verdict this morning, here is a fine piece from Mike Steinberger to read while they ponder:

'Kurniawan, Connoisseurs, and the Selective Deception Hypothesis

2013 December 17. Mike Steinberger Wine Diarist.com
One of the Rudy memes making the rounds is the theory that he had authentic bottles alongside all the knockoffs and that he was careful not to serve or sell his counterfeit wines to people who were likely to recognize them as such, in particular Allen Meadows. In response to my last post, in which I questioned why Kurniawan’s attorneys hadn’t sought to put Meadows on the witness stand, several people wrote to me suggesting that Kurniawan had used Meadows as part of a pump-and-dump scheme, serving him legit bottles in order to gin up demand for those wines, demand that Kurniawan then satisfied with his fakes. In a comment on eBob yesterday, Robert Parker posited this very scenario (although he didn’t cite Meadows by name). The underlying assumption is that Meadows was much too good a taster to be fooled by sham bottles, and that Kurniawan knew this and plied him with genuine bottles instead. What everyone seems to be forgetting is that there was at least one instance in which Kurniawan is known to have served Meadows a counterfeit wine, and we know this because it was one of the bottles that triggered Kurniawan’s downfall. However, it wasn’t Meadows’s palate that snagged Kurniawan.'

Read the rest here. 

Wine fraud: some weekend reading

Labels seized by the US authorities at Rudy Kurniawan's home in Los Angeles  

It has been a bad few months for the fine wine sector, especially Burgundy. At the end of March an unnamed Beaune, but believed to be 63-year-old, Bernard Gras, was arrested after an investigation into false labelling and mixing Burgundy with wine from further south. Then in mid-May Rudy Kurniawan was arrested, charged and detained for alleged massive frauds stretching back over a number of years. Most recently four people, including the two owners, from Labouré-Roi, Burgundy's third largest négociant, were arrested. 

How widespread is counterfeiting is one still unanswered question hanging over the fine wine sector along with the supplementary question: what checks do merchants carry out to check provenance and right of title to the wines they buy?

The good news is that Rudy Kurniawan's arrest and exposure has prompted some good reading from Benjamin Wallace (New York Times magazine), Mike Steinberger (Vanity Fair) and Doug Barzelay (oldvinenotes). Barzelay is particularly interesting as he is a Burgundy collector, met Rudy on a number of occasions and is able to tell part of the inside story.          

Château Sucker by Benjamin Wallace

'Rare-wine collectors are savvy, competitive guys with a taste for impossible finds. The biggest hoax in history took place right under their noses.'

Published May 13, 2012

http://nymag.com/news/features/rudy-kurniawan-wine-fraud-2012-5/

A Vintage Crime by Michael Steinberger

'Collecting vintage Burgundies, Rudy Kurniawan drove the rare-wine market to new heights, then began selling his treasures. Or so it seemed. Michael Steinberger uncorks what may be the largest case of fine-wine fraud in history.'

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2012/07/wine-fraud-rudy-kurniawan-vintage-burgundies

The rise and fall of a wine counterfeiter by Doug Barzelay 

June 18, 2012

'With the arrest of Rudy Kurniawan (on March 8, 2012), an extraordinary chapter in the history of wine fraud has begun to close. Two recent articles, Mike Steinberger’s A Vintage Crime in Vanity Fair, and Ben Wallace’s Château Sucker in New York, have ably chronicled the facts as we now know them, though I strongly suspect that further revelations may emerge.'

http://oldvinenotes.com/2012/06/18/the-rise-and-fall-of-a-wine-counterfeiter/

There is also the continuing thread on WINEBeserkers called Rudy Kurniawan Spectrum/Vanquished Wine Auction that was started by Don Cornwell on Saturday 4th February 2012. It now runs to 102 pages.  
http://wineberserkers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=61172


Two alleged Burgundian frauds:

Beaune negociant – 31st March 2012

Beaune Fraude aux AOC Bourgogne : un négociant mis en examen

le 31/03/2012 à 05:00 par Anne-Françoise Bailly

'Jeudi en fin d’après-midi, à l’issue de sa garde à vue, un négociant en vins, dont le siège de la société est à Beaune, a été présenté au Parquet de Dijon, qui a demandé une ouverture d’information au cabinet d’un juge d’instruction. Le procureur de la république Eric Lallemand a confirmé hier que ce négociant, qui possède par ailleurs trois boutiques en Saône-et-Loire, avait été mis en examen pour « tromperie sur la nature et la qualité substantielle des produits », « pratiques commerciales trompeuses », « achat et vente de produits sans facturation conforme », et « utilisation frauduleuse.'

http://www.lejsl.com/saone-et-loire/2012/03/31/fraude-aux-aoc-bourgogne-un-negociant-mis-en-examen

An interesting discussion here from La Passion du Vin on the wines of Bernard Gras. 

Fraudes sur les vins : Labouré-Roi dans la tourmente.

le 13/06/2012 à 05:00 par GILLES DUPONT

'Quatre dirigeants de la maison de négoce nuitonne Labouré-Roi ont été placés en garde à vue la semaine dernière par les gendarmes. Ils ont été entendus sur une impressionnante série de tricheries.' 

http://www.bienpublic.com/cote-d-or/2012/06/13/fraudes-sur-les-vins-laboure-roi-dans-la-tourmente

Finally Doug Barzelay looks at how wine frauds might be reduced. 

Wine Fraud (oldvinenotes)

February 15, 2012

A few years ago, after having played some role in exposing the attempted sale of a substantial number of fake Ponsot wines at auction, I recounted that story, with indignation, to a friend of mine who is a senior executive at a consumer products company. Why, he asked, was I surprised that people were faking expensive bottles of wine? “They’re out there faking our toothpaste.”

http://oldvinenotes.com/2012/02/15/wine-fraud/

Mike Steinberger's Wine Diarist: remarkable job on Rudy Kurniawan alleged counterfeiting

 Photos of material found at Rudy Kurniawan's home

Mike Steinberger on his Wine Diarist site is providing remarkable coverage of the allegations against Rudy Kurniawan, who was arrested on various charges in Los Angeles last week including wine counterfeiting. 

See here, here* and here. * This post includes some remarkable comments in particular from Paul Wasserman, who worked for Rudy at The Wine Hotel, a wine retail and storage business in Los Angeles, and by Laurent Ponsot, who started the unravelling of Kurniawan's alleged counterfeiting.

See also Eric Asimov in the New York Times and a round up of related stories on Dr Vino. Last week I posted some earlier links here to the story.   

#Campogate: inept handling of Miller's departure and the question of public money

Pancho Campo, Jay Miller and The Wine Academy of Spain: happier days

Robert Parker's handling of Jay Miller's departure has been remarkably inept. Faced with headlines in The Baltimore Sun like 'Paid to sip? Wine scandal swirls around Baltimore critic' (The Baltimore Sun – Jay's local paper) Miller would have a right to feel that his long standing friend has dropped him squarely in it and with good reason to feel sore.

No doubt Parker would say that he had told his team on 4th November that Miller's departure would be announced on 5th December. Given the rising evidence last week of scandal surrounding Campo's organisation of Miller's agenda and his visits in Spain culminating in criticism of the 'Miller Circus' by José Penin, Spain leading wine writer last Saturday, a few minutes reflection would surely have shown Parker how the news of Miller's departure would be interpreted. Delaying the announcement of Miller's departure for a few weeks, would have avoided the public relations disaster which has duly arrived.

The Baltimore Sun says that Parker has launched an investigation quoting him as saying: "We're being damaged by these allegations and are trying to get to the bottom of what the truth is." There have been no details of how this investigation is being carried out, what is brief is and when it will be concluded. Certainly neither Harold Heckle nor I have been contacted. Nor for that matter have I been contacted by Pancho's lawyers.         

**

One aspect of this scandal that has yet to be explored is whether public money was used to pay Campo, The Wine Academy of Spain and Miller's substantial lecturing fees. There is a brief comment on the Verema site:

'A mi, como consumidor, poco me importa. Mientras las bodegas quieran pagar, allá ellas. Ahora, si se emplea dinero público para montar circos, entiendo que algunos se enfaden.'

'To me, as a consumer, I do not care. If the wineries want to pay, that’s up to them. Now, if public money is used to mount circuses, I can understand that some are angry.'

People might well be angry if public money was paid out in the expectation that Miller would be scoring wines for The Wine Advocate and if his imminent and planned departure was deliberately concealed from DOs like Murcia and Valencia. Had they known that Miller was about to leave would they have been so keen to fund his 'free-lance speaking engagements' to the tune of €29,000 and €35,000?  


The Spanish DOs are in part funded by their producers and in part by Government money. Spanish tax payers may not be best pleased to discover that Campo has been charging DOs substantial money for access to Jay Miller. The Wine Academy of Spain (The Wine Academy LLC) is registered at Flat 14 W, Watergate One, 1111 Gulfstream Avenue, Sarasota, Florida 342336, USA. What, then, is the tax regime for The Wine Academy of Spain (The Wine Academy LLC)?   

**

Mike Steinberger (Wine Diarist) raises further questions over Miller's departure here.