Excellent honest work
Some wines from other sources like this find there way to wine lists and wine shops
From the link:
In his [Don Cornwell, of course!] lengthy and extremely detailed post on > the Wineberserkers site> , he alleged that “many lots” in the sale were “either outright counterfeit or highly questionable”.
(my emphasis)
Good work, Don! We should get you a Lone Ranger outfit!
Really impressive work. I just hope the sharing of such great detail of their mistakes doesnt help counterfeiters do better in the future …
Always a concern and this battle will go on forever, not dissimilar from cyber security or PEDs in sports. But I think in general wider dissemination of info is almost always better in the long run.
Don’t know how many of you read/speak French, but the local Geneva paper ran a front page article on the results of the sale.
Main points: record sale of DRC; 1,407 bottles sold for $4.3MM. Case of 1988 went under the hammer for for 144,000 CHF. Ganne was quoted as saying the sale was both unique and historic and that the bottles came from a single collector who wishes to remain anonymous…
-And not a word about the fakes, that was cancelled out in the last moment… Hmm.
As a relative newcomer to buying fine wine I find these posts hugely useful as a part of my education. Things I’ve learnt from your investigations have absolutely stopped me from buying fakes, and it’s hugely appreciated. Thank you.
It’s situations like this that make me glad I don’t have the budget or palette to be in the market for wines like these. Not much worry about counterfeit Pinotage.
![[berserker.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/8/8600bbd4810d342b8fbd4ffb62b4f0026275fd37.gif "berserker"){kind=small}
“Quelque 50 personnes ont participé aux enchères mais la plupart des achats ont été menés par téléphone pour des acheteurs asiatiques, a précisé Michael Ganne. (afp/nxp)”
Maybe the Chinese can’t read Cornwell-ese either. We need to create a new verb form as in “to Cornwell.”
Cornwell v. tr. To be caught trying to sell fraudulent goods, usually at auction, and being exposed,usually through Internet postings. Example: Rudy was cornwelled all the way to a Federal Penitentiary. origin: derived from an attorney who made a habit of exposing counterfeit wines, especially those of the Domaine Romanee Conti.
The article includes a paragraph reading:
Mr Cornwell has made several challenges to auctions of vintage wines in recent years. He has been involved in a number of legal actions, winning some and losing others.
Does anyone know of any actions to which Don was a party that have been won or lost? I know that Don has been threatened with litigation but the only legal action I know of is Henry Tang’s defamation suit filed in Hong Kong in the fall of 2013 for which I can’t find anything online addressing its resolution.
Mike:
You have it correct. I have not been party to any litigation matters other than being named as a defendant in Henry Tang’s lawsuit filed in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong court specifically ordered that the lawsuit could not be served in the US. As far as I know, that was the end of the matter.
That statement (has been involved in a number of legal actions, winning some and losing others) is so non-specific that it can be made about almost any attorney that’s been involved in litigation. So it may be true, but meaningless with respect to the wine fraud exposés.
Good point. I never thought of that. I’ve been involved in a lot of litigation over the past 40 years and I’ve lost some. AND I’M NOT EVEN A LITIGATOR!
Reminds me of a story many years ago when a guy named Helvering applied for a mortgage loan and was rejected. Why? Because he was getting sued left and right and there were hundreds of lawsuits against him. You see, Helvering was the Commissioner of the IRS, and every lawsuit against the IRS in those days listed the defendant as Helvering, CIR (for Commissioner of Internal Revenue).
I’ll just repeat what my Dad used to say “First you need honest people”
Great piece by Tom Wark on his Blog, Fermentation:
Paging Don Cornwell!!
Here’s another news item worthy of your comment. From today’s Wine Spectator Online:
Suit alleges that “…Richard Brierley, former head of Christie’s North American wine department and head of Vanquish wine auctions at the time in question; Xavier Nebout, CEO of a Bordeaux wine firm called Cep’Age; and Marc Lazar, a Missouri-based wine dealer and wine-storage facility owner…[committed] fraud and negligent misrepresentation and asks for $2.45 million plus punitive damages…”
(Forgive me if you’ve already discussed this, I haven’t noticed it here)
Don has a fairly detailed write up on Marc Lazar, he likes them really old or very young.
Ed:
I did post something about the new lawsuit against Rudy, Richard Brierley, Marc Lazar, and Xavier Nebout in the wine counterfeiting thread. http://www.wineberserkers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=2020217#p2020217 This is a fascinating one. Three of Rudy’s four sales agents plus Rudy all in one lawsuit.
Peter Hellman at Wine Spectator, who is a friend of mine, did a fabulous job of laying out the story behind the lawsuit. There are other details about the level of involvement of Richard Brierley and Marc Lazar which are set forth in the complaint, a copy of which you will find here. https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/nyscef/ViewDocument?docIndex=fgCoCQrztwq0Mlp71sy9ZQ== Also, I had written a profile about Marc Lazar entitled RUDY KURNIAWAN’S AGENT/DISTRIBUTOR – MARC LAZAR in the counterfeiting thread in August of 2015. http://www.wineberserkers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1811501#p1811501 That article discussed Marc Lazar’s participation in this transaction and it included one of the documents showing that Mr. Lazar was consigning wines for Rudy Kurniawan to Acker Merrall auctions during 2011. The document in question was left in one of the boxes that contained some of the bottles delivered from Acker Merrall to the Wine Cellarage warehouse at the request of Marc Lazar.
Well, it’s pretty clear that there are a lot of Rudy bottles out there. They will be showing up for a long time.