Looks like Rudy’s collection is going up for sale.
Must admit quite fun reading through this :
Yes a lot of odd and interesting stuff here. Hard to imagine bidding on this stuff. Is any of it real? Seems like the highest risk auction buying available. And I don’t see stunningly low prices to reflect the risks involved.
“Hey everyone! Wine at 20% discount from the world’s most famous wine counterfeiter!”
They are only selling to professionals. The terms of sale include, “Proof of valid alcoholic beverage license will be required before merchandise will be released.” So what we are talking about here is a wine auction where the buyers will be risking eternal damnation on wine discussion boards for putting back into circulation wines from a known forger. I think I’ll ask the auctioneer about authenticity and provenance.
Actually, it cuts in the opposite direction for a lot of the stuff, which is old, cheap (relatively speaking) blending wine, much of it appearing to be in excellent condition, and almost guaranteed to be authentic because nobody but Rudy had use for that much old, off-vintage wine from fifth-rate producers…
Just received from the auctioneer:
U.S. Marshals Service
Frequently Asked Questions
Rudy Kurniawan Wine Auctions
November-December 2015
How many bottles of wine will be sold?
Approximately 4,700 bottles of wine will be sold during two online auctions. The first auction, which runs Nov. 24 to Dec. 8, will offer approximately 2,800 bottles. The second auction, which runs Dec. 1-15, will offer approximately 1,900 bottles.
Why is it being sold in two separate auctions?
Because of the large volume of wine being sold, it was more manageable for the auction company to split it up over two auctions.
What conditions are the wines being stored in?
The wines have been stored in a walk-in cooler since their arrival in Texas in March 2015. The cooler has been kept at 55 degrees Fahrenheit.
Who did the authentication?
The Marshals contracted for the wine authentication and appraisal. The contract was awarded to Stephanie Reeves, of Houston, who worked with a team that included Michael Egan of Bordeaux, France. Egan was involved in the Kurniawan federal court case as the principal expert witness for the prosecution at trial. Specifically, Egan inspected the bottles with the most risk of being counterfeit, and he uncovered a quantity of counterfeit bottles that were removed from the collection being sold.
What was the authentication process?
All wines were inspected by experts with specific experience and knowledge in the field. A complete physical inspection was performed along with comparisons to both known-fake examples and authentic exemplars. Any wines that were of questionable authenticity were removed and will be destroyed.
What is the provenance?
The vast majority of the wine offered for sale is from reputable auction houses and retailers. Many of the bottles bear packaging or stickers that indicate the sources. Some of the old vintages were sourced directly from the producers in Burgundy, as were a number of other wines.
Is all of the wine drinkable?
While all bottles that were obviously compromised or actively leaking were removed from the collection, buyers must be cognizant when considering bidding on the older wines. Old wines are fragile and potentially not appealing to drink, as would be the case no matter the seller.
How many bottles of wine were deemed counterfeit?
Approximately 548 were deemed counterfeit or not suitable for sale. Approximately 392 were deemed counterfeit. Approximately 156 had no sale value for reasons such as having no capsule, a failing cork, or not being full.
How certain are you that none of the wine being sold is fake?
While there can be no guarantee with 100% certainty in any situation such as this, to the best of our knowledge, the wines we are selling are genuine.
I guess this was the stock he used to create counterfeit wine.
I don’t see this anywhere in the T&C or FAQ. Where did you find it?
EDIT - Found it in item description.
Bidders outside of the state of Texas must utilize a Third Party carrier which posseses a valid alcohol transportation permit for the state of Texas.
Private collectors purchases must be cleared through licensees allowed to purchase wine through auction.
Texas Residents must provide valid alcoholic beverage license prior to payment and release of goods.
George
Wonder he used that Liberty Bay Merlot for?
Some of the reserve prices are crazy.
I love this part.
" Old wines are fragile and potentially not appealing to drink, as would be the case no matter the seller."
What a joke
The prices and condition of these bottles surely prevent any legitimate dealer from buying, it is scary to think these bottles could end up in legitimate auctions or wine shops
Just a quick scan through shows bottles with corks that have shrunk pencil thin, lot 7070 is 1943 Corton magnums three have white labels, three have cream labels. Im not an expert but can this wine really be worth $935 a six pack ? if perfectly stored it sounds like it would be barely drinkable.
Part of some Right Bank Bordeaux probably. Did he sell any “Petrus”? 
Are there any other Pomerals worth faking? ![[wink.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/04707e6a7bbb03e0153e349d8a9270d30e1e9525.gif "wink"){kind=small}
Alan -
In 2008 Zachy’s sold 6 750ML bottles of 1947 Partiarche Corton for $557/bottle. In 2010 Acker sold 3 bottles of 1959 of the same for just over $200 per 750ML bottle.
The description here: https://www.txauction.com/details.cfm?itemnum=27535 - notes that they are in 2 3pk OCBs. Most buyers of this type of stock would understand that the fact that there are OCB’s and the appearance would clearly indicate that this was a late release from the domaine. Most likely, due to the fact that the labels are actually different, they were from different late releases.
1943 was a pretty good, but not great vintage. Well stored magnums of Grand Cru wines should be mature. I cannot speak to the quality of Patriarche in that era, but I would guess that the quality was mediocre in the 40’s and the wine is still mediocre today.
At $935 for 6 1500ML - that is equivalent to $78/bot…What do you think is a more appropriate price?
Josh
Josh
If these were genuine bottles in a real auction i would have no idea of the value
You state these are clearly from a late release, mmm 2006 in a garage maybe ? they are suspect looking bottles from the cellar of the biggest fraudster ever. For a wine like this to survive it must be well kept, again something we have no idea about.
I would value these particular bottles around $10-20 each as a novelty item for a wine offline, in fact that is the value i would attach to most of this collection. You are buying wine from a crook, conman and downright liar, you really want to trust that anything he owned was good ? even if the outside is good i bet he bought wines from fire, flood etc sales.
Anyone dumb enough to pay these prices deserves what they get, my concern is that these will get passed along to unsuspecting buyers via ebay, winebid etc. Selling his house. car etc to recoup funds to pay off creditors is fine but all his wines should have been destroyed.
Alan, you are completely missing the point. Many of these wines, probably most (I have not yet reviewed the entire catalog yet) were sourced by Rudy at auction and elsewhere to use as BLENDING wines to create his fakes. They are real, legitimate wines, untainted by Rudy’s fraud, save that he once owned them. It does not matter that they are once again in circulation. Many of them are probably not worth drinking on their own, but that is a different issue. The established Rudy fakes that were found are not part of the auction, and the catalog says so. Worse case, a very few bottles in this auction are Rudy fakes that were misauthenticated, but I doubt even that. The greatest risk here would be mistreatment of the wines during transit and storage AFTER Rudy was arrested. Well, that and the wines simply being crappy, old, off-vintage wines of uncertain provenance to begin with…
Lots of 1996 Clos des Goisses in there. That’s good stuff if not heat-damaged. I would guess it would be easy to spot a fake Champagne so I suspect that since they made it through the authentication process these are real bottles. Odd though, to use such high-end Champagne for blending. Maybe this was genuine stuff used to help keep the con going.
As I posted in the other thread on this topic, I think I would actually be willing to pay a premium for one of the less expensive bottles. It would be my first bottle ever purchased as a “collector”, never to be drunk. I think it would be kind of cool to own a bottle from Rudy’s collection. Ironically, with the established provenance (ha!), I bet it would increase in value given Rudy’s notoriety in the wine investment world.
I too would be interested in buying one of Rudy’s bottles but would actually prefer to buy one of the know counterfeits.
This is fair enough, but I had the same thought when I looked at the lot of '73 Moine Hudelot Musigny and saw one differently-colored capsule. Though perhaps that would simply reflect that a capsule was removed to view a cork and a replacement used thereafter? Perhaps research would show authentic provenance for these bottles, and perhaps they are not worth faking, which I understand is the “appeal” of the less-heralded bottles here, that they might offer good - even if not great - mature bottles that would otherwise be hard to find. Still, it does seem that with the somewhat better labels you’d be taking a rather significant risk of merely purchasing the best of Rudy’s forgeries.