This should make things interesting…
http://www.jancisrobinson.com/articles/a20090911.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Thanks for posting this !
your welcome. waiting for the 2nd half of the book as you know there is going to be a continuation of the billionaires vinegar
For more details:
http://www.winespectator.com/webfeature/show/id/40637" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
This is going to get even more interesting.
Bruce
Koch has endless supplies of cash, and he is pissed, not a good combo for his enemies.
I’d like 10.4m in credit to buy wine. Any takers? [suicide.gif]
Dan,
I agree Kock is on a witch hunt and will take down anyone in his way.
Well, ultimately the question will be whether he has the ammunition, or can find it.
Bruce
But he will keep paying lawyers and former FBI agents to do just that.
This is ugly.
Gotta remember, Koch’s the guy who sued his mother and brother for control of the family business. A real sweetheart.
A guy can be a real jerk and still be correct. Or he can be a true sweetheart and still be wrong.
Bruce
Selling/passing off fake wine is dirty…IF Rudy did this…then I am all for Koch (or anybody else) going after him.
As specifics come out through discovery, this is going to get very very ugly. Look for names not yet mentioned but known to Burgophiles, to be associated with this mess (albeit probably unwittingly). It won’t be pretty.
Come now Wilfie. What do you know… ![[popcorn.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/1/1ca9f29573458cca2424a66a50d6c1261081dd3e.gif "[popcorn.gif]"){kind=small}
Yup. The only question is whether wittingly or not.
While wine-surfing this morning, this popped up.
Hat tip to Alder Yarrow’s blog:
06.28.2009
Do We Have eBay to Thank for All That Counterfeit Wine?
http://www.vinography.com/archives/2009/06/do_we_have_ebay_to_thank_for_a.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
3rd Annual Meeting American Association of Wine Economists (AAWE)
Forensic Economics: Some Evidence for New Wine to be sold in Old Bottles >Author: Günter Schamel
Free University Bozen-Bolzano
School of Economics and Management
Via Sernesi 1
39100 Bozen-Bolzano
ITALYEmail: > gschamel@unibz.it >
Abstract:
Wine fraud has also caught some media attention recently with the lawsuits filed by collector
William Koch against two Chicago wine auction houses as well as German collector Hardy
Rodenstock. The story was also subject of the best-selling book The Billionaire’s Vinegar by
author Benjamin Wallace. In this paper, we find forensic economic evidence that wine fraud may
be facilitated by online auctions which have become a fascinating new type of economic
exchange mechanism. Online auctions have significantly lowered the costs for seller to organize
and for bidders to participate in an auction. Indeed, lower costs appear to be the reason why
auctions are used more often and for an ever broader range of goods. However, they may also
facilitate the exchange of goods that subsequently can be used in fraudulent transactions. In this
paper, we look at the online auction market for empty bottles formerly containing premium wine,
which could potentially be re-filled and re-sold as premium wine. In fact, there is a relatively
active market for empty premium wine bottles on the German eBay site, with about 40-50
offered during an average month. We collected and analyzed a data set analyzing about 260
offerings over a period of 6 month. Using a Probit model we analyze the factors explaining when
an empty bottle is actually sold versus when it remains with the seller. In a second model, we
analyze the successful transactions using a hedonic model to explain the final auction prices for
empty premium wine bottles. Interestingly, the most powerful variable explaining both the
incidence of sale and the price of an empty bottle is the price a full and presumably authentic
bottle could potentially fetch in the marketplace. We argue that this is also powerful evidence
that the empty bottles might go on to be refilled. Why otherwise would someone want to pay
more than 100 Euros for an empty bottle of 1982 Chateau Lafite-Rothschild rated with 100
Parker points? Presumably, because it is worth a lot more once it is filled-up again.
Key words: auctions, fraud, forensic economics.
A “witch hunt”, metaphorically, is a paranoid act in pursuit of those perceived to be threats. Usually with little or no real evidence. Witches aren’t real in the sense that they have powers to cast spells etc.
I think he is doing this based on solid evidence he has gathered and he has good reason to believe fraud has been committed.
I remember seeing the catalog of the Acker sale and thinking it was “unreal”.
Has there ever been a better example of an academic proof of the blindingly obvious?
Perhaps not. But it was probably only about a year ago that I read on eBob that Hardy Rodenstock was allegedly an avid collector of old EMPTY French wine bottles at auction. What’s obvious or a retread to some is new news to others.
It was not so black and white…there was a lot of money at stake with that lawsuit.