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/

Would I recognise a fake, elderly Loire?

1934 Domaine René Couly, Chinon – neck label and robe

Surely genuine but could I have picked it out had it been fake?

The arrest of Rudy Kurniawan last week by the FBI on counterfeiting charges raises many interesting questions, whether he proves to be guilty or not. Reading Bill Klapp’s comment (below) on Mike Steinberger’s Wine Diarist, I have to ask whether I would recognise a fake elderly Loire wine.

‘Bill Klapp

March 10, 2012

I would add this, however: what is now surfacing explains Rudy’s vaunted generosity. One has to laugh at the fools that are still defending Rudy because they were more-money-than-good-sense types who benefitted from his largesse. Too bad they did not know if and when all those generous pours were fakes. Too bad wine critics rarely know when they are drinking and reporting on fake bottles, especially exceedingly old and rare bottles for which they have no frame of reference but their own egos. One would have thought that something had been learned from the Rodenstock debacle, but apparently not. And the more old wine that one drinks, the more one realizes that it is absolutely true that there are no great wines or great vintages, just great bottles. It seems to me that that phenomenon, along with others, such as the Emperor’s New Clothes nature of wine criticism and the collection and consumption of the old, rare, expensive and point-laden bottles in general, often makes wine fraud an exercise in shooting fish in a (wine) barrel…’

While I might like to think that I could, it is as Klapp suggests very far from certain, especially due to my having little or no terms of reference for some very old Loires.

I should say that I have no reason to believe that I have ever been served or tasted a fake Loire wine. This is partly because unlike Bordeaux or Burgundy there is generally little incentive to counterfeit old Loire wines. Both in regard to the price they fetch and because trophy collectors rarely seek to impress with their selection of rare Loires. Counterfeiting job lots of young Sancerre in China would, of course, be a different matter. More importantly I trust the integrity of the producers who have served old wines and most of the old Loires I have tasted came straight from their cellars and had never been on the secondary market.

I have been privileged to taste a number of very old vintages of sweet Loires, especially from Vouvray but certainly not a sufficient number to be sure to pick out a fake. In May 2004 I had the chance to be at the pre-auction tasting of the Huet wines and tried the stunning 1924 Le Haut-Lieu Moelleux. It could hypothetically have been a ‘fake’. Having never tasted a 1924 Vouvray moelleux before, I had no proper frame of reference and, with the exception of Noël Pinguet, there would have been very few present that evening, who had. Due to some experience it is quite possible that I was less surprised than some at how youthful the 1924 remained.

Equally at the tasting of old Chinon last September, had the 1934 Domaine René Couly been a fake then I would have had no frame of reference to help me spot it since the only other Loire red from the 1930s I had ever encountered was a 1937 Clos Rougeard Saumur (before the advent of the Saumur-Champigny AC) that I drank with Nady Foucault some 10 or more years previously. Like the 1924 Vouvray the 1934 Chinon was remarkably youthful but then well-made Loires of all colours do have an ability to age for a remarkable length of time.

So, yes, I’m sure I could be fooled but trust that the Loire is and will continue to be a fake-free zone!

1934 Domaine René Couly – new label as it would have been stored unlabelled

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.   

Rudy Kurniawan’s arrest – links to the story and problem of counterfeiting

Rudy Kurniawan’s arrest yesterday by the FBI in Los Angeles on charges of fraud and counterfeiting looks very likely to be the wine scam story of 2012 at the very least if he is found guilty. It also assumes that there will be no other high-profile counterfeiting arrests in the near future.

Kurniawan’s arrest certainly further shines the spotlight on the problem of fine wine fakes, which has been receiving growing attention recently. To date dubious wine investment companies appear not to have dabbled in fakes for understandable reasons. It is much easier to rip off customers by overcharging them or to take the Bordeaux Wine Trading Company/International Wine Commodities approach and not buy any wine and just trouser clients’ money. High level counterfeiting is likely to require more work and expertise.

Here are some links for anyone wanting to catch up on Rudy Kurniawan and on those who helped expose him:

Report of Kurniawan’s arrest in the NewYork Times

winebeserkers' thread that warned that there were alleged Kurniawan fakes in a February 2012 auction in London.

Mike Steinberger’s Wine Diarist that has a copy of the complaint filed by the Federal Prosecutors in New York. It makes pretty amazing reading. Allegedly Kurniawan has been an illegal immigrant in the US since 2003 when he was ordered to leave the country.

Jancis Robinson MW has long followed this story as well as highlighting the problem of fakes in the fine wine sector. See here and here.