Same here. Bizarre. Just yesterday.
It’s a parody account haha.
Also bizarre reading the supporters on his page that don’t understand it’s a parody account. How could anyone support this guy???
A NEAR MISS … 607 LOTS REMOVED FROM BONHAMS HONG KONG AUCTION
Bonhams Auction in Hong Kong conducted a two-day spirits and wine auction in Hong Kong on November 20-21. The first part of the auction (lots 1-474) consisting of whisky and spirits, was held on Friday November 20. The wine portion of the auction (lots 475-1276), was held yesterday, Saturday, November 21, 2020. The wine auction included a single cellar consignment (Lots 475-1081), titled as the A1 Cellar, which belonged to Singapore wine collector William Giauw. Due to overwhelming problems with the authenticity of the lots in the A1 Cellar, in response to our request, the entire collection of 607 lots was pulled by Bonhams with the consent of the consignor shortly before the sale was to commence. My kudos to Bonhams’ management and the consignor for belatedly doing the right thing here and avoiding the most counterfeit-filled auction sale since the Cellar I and Cellar II auctions in 2006
After one of the members of our review team alerted everyone that there seemed to be serious problems with a very large number of bottles in this consignment, we began giving considerable scrutiny to each lot for which there were either large photos in the catalog or photos available online in earnest. One of the team members had actually physically inspected this same consignment before and advised the owner that there were an overwhelming number of counterfeit wines included and that the wines could not be sold. Some of the worst offending wines (mostly from DRC and Liger-Belair) were eliminated, but most were consigned to Bonhams for auction.
I am aware that due to travel restrictions with the Covid-19 virus, Richard Harvey, the head of the Bonhams Wine Department in London, was unable to travel to Hong Kong to inspect the collection himself. Based on what we observed from the catalog and the online photos it would appear that no one from Bonhams with the slightest amount of knowledge about authentication inspected the wines prior to the catalog publication. I say that because this catalog and the available online photos contained 17 separate lots of what I have previously referred to in this thread as “Seeing Eye Dog” auction lots – wines supposedly from the same producer, same vineyard and same vintage which any human being with normal eye sight who knew nothing about wine could look at and tell you in in seconds that there was a problem because the bottles were different colors, different shapes, different heights or otherwise obviously didn’t match. Starting with auctions dating back to the fall of 2011, I’ve written about three such auction lots – but in one auction, and one collection, there were 17 such lots. That is simply impossible to rationally explain. I have included photos of some of the most ridiculous lots below.
Bonhams Lot 851 – purported 1959 Felix Clerget Beaune Greves (3 different bottle colors) | Bonhams Lot 813 – purported 1949 Jules Belin Musigny (3 different glass colors
Bonhams Lot 677 – purported 1949 Charles Noëllat Richebourg (3 different glass colors and different capsules) | Bonhams Lot 651 – purported 1950 Chateau Lafleur (4 completely different bottles)
Beyond the 17 patently obvious “Seeing Eye Dog” lots, there were massive numbers of other counterfeits. For example, there were 26 lots of purported Henri Jayer burgundies (lots 821-846) including 12 lots which pre-dated the start of Jayer’s domaine bottling - - including 1959, 1962, 1966 and 1971 Richebourg, all of which were clearly counterfeit. The Bonhams wine department in London pulled all of the Jayer lots but one early in the week leading up to the auction in response to our initial expressions of concern. (That promising response helps explain why you didn’t see an advance warning here.)
There were also multiple lots of highly suspect Maison Leroy grand crus from the 1960s and 1970s, obviously counterfeit 1945 to 1952 Vogüé Musigny (Mise Drouhin)(Lots 605-608), counterfeit 1990 Coche Corton Charlemagne (Lot 651) and an astounding 17 lots of counterfeit Charles Noëllat burgundies purportedly from 1949 to 1978 (Lots 664 -680) all bearing the same bogus label. (This is the domaine acquired by Lalou Bize-Leroy in 1988 which is the principal basis of Domaine Leroy today.) Two of the lots of the Charles Noëllat Richebourg (1949 and 1952) were among the 17 lots of “Seeing Eye Dog” counterfeits with obviously mismatched bottles. But all of the purported Charles Noëllat labels had a very blurry violet-tinted photograph that looked more like an etching.
Bonhams Lot 679 – purported 1962 Charles Noëllat Richebourg Magnums
Correct 1966 Charles Noëllat Richebourg label (from European auction/retailer I Deal Wine) | Original labels from Charles Noëllat Richebourg 1959 to 1966
This consignment also contained multiple wines that never existed - for example, 1964 Georges Jayer Échézeaux (Lot 820), 1990 Maison Leroy Musigny (Lot 694) [Note: there was Domaine Leroy 1990 Musigny, but not Maison Leroy Musigny], and 1999 Frederic Mugnier Chambertin, Chambertin Clos de Beze and Chappelle Chambertin (Lot 722). As one of the team members said: “What’s next, Rousseau Musigny?”
There were multiple lots of purported old Clos de Lambrays (Cosson family bottles) from 1947, 1949, 1962, 1964, 1978, 1990 and 2002 (Lots 733-739). The two lots that had photos (from 1947 and 1949) had completely incorrect neck labels, incorrect brown bottles and crude (Rudy-like) wax capsules.
One of the more disturbing things that we found was that there were obviously counterfeit wines from the 1940s and 1950s from burgundy producers whose wines are NOT typically counterfeited, including 1949 and 1959 Prieur Musigny (Lots 753-755), 1947 and 1949 Pierre Ponnelle Musigny and Chambertin (685- 689), 1949 Jules Belin Musigny and Richebourg (Lots 812-814), 1949-1962 Felix Clerget Volnay, Beaune Greves and Corton (Lots 847-859) and 1959-1962 Michel Gaunoux Pommard Rugiens and Grand Epenots (Lots 901-903). In each case here, I was initially tipped off that there was a problem that we needed to do more research on because the bottle colors in the photos on some of these lots clearly didn’t match.
(Top left) Bonhams Lot 815 – purported 1949 Ponnelle Chambertin (note different colored bottle on right) – this is a copy of the mid-1950s label style | (Top Right) 1947 Ponnelle Chambertin (from Winebid 2019) | (Bottom) 1947 and 1949 Ponnelle Bonnes Mares
The counterfeits and highly suspect wines were not just limited to burgundy. There were also multiple lots of counterfeit old Bordeaux from the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s, including counterfeit (and non-matching) 1950 (shown above) and 1961 Chataeau Lafleur. From 1945 onward, Lafleur never had vintage neck tags.
Bonhams Lot 603 – purported 1961 Chateau Lafleur – versus – Real 1961 Chateau Lafleur (from Winebid)
One of the featured lots in the auction was six bottles of (counterfeit) 1947 Chateau L’Eglise Cllinet – a wine that was never sold under that label. From the 1884 vintage to the 1954 vintage, the wine was labeled as Clos L’Eglise-Clinet. It was only labeled as Chateau L’Eglise Clinet starting with the 1955 vintage. Learn about Chateau L'Eglise Clinet Pomerol, Complete Guide See also the review of the 1947 from a recent Vinous article by Neal Martin from a L’Eglise Clinet vertical tasting (set forth below). The counterfeiter also tried to scratch out or obscure the 73CL appearing on the lower left side of the label. We believe this wine came from Rudy Kurniawan, because he had a template for it among the records that the FBI seized.
Bonhams Lot 596 – purported 1947 Chateau L’Eglise Clinet
The 1954 Clos L’Eglise Clinet – the last vintage with this labeling
Review from Neal Martin –
1947 L’Eglise-Clinet
The only bottle of the legendary 1947 l’Eglise-Clinet, > at that time labeled Clos de l’Eglise-Clinet> , to have passed my palate was bottled by a Pauillac-based merchant Jean Terrioux. It has an attractive nose of dried fig and leather well defined with touches of mint. There is certainly impressive freshness. The palate is initially opulent and lavish like many 1947s, although it only takes five minutes for what would have been a spectacular Pomerol to completely oxidize. I am sure there is plenty of bottle variation when it comes to this wine. Tasting note taken from the Pomerol book by Neal Martin. 92 - Neal Martin
We were petty overwhelmed trying to review and provide the backup to demonstrate why all of these wines were counterfeit or highly suspect. We flagged approximately one hundred lots of the 607 contained in the consignment. Given the width and breadth of the counterfeits that we found, we were also concerned because there were many lots in the catalog for which there were no photographs. I ended up contacting senior management from Bonhams that I have had some dealings with in the past. We presented all of our findings in a series of emails. We ultimately asked that they withdraw all of the lots in the consignment because there was an unprecedented number of counterfeit lots and a fear there could be many more. As of early Saturday morning (Hong Kong time) the Wine Department had pulled 84 lots and was still working. When the auction opened, they announced that, with the consent of the consignor, the entire A1 Collection had been withdrawn.
My thanks to Bonhams’ management and the Bonhams Wine Department for ultimately doing the right thing – but I just wish that the consignment had been properly vetted and rejected to begin with.
This is incredible work, Don! However, it is laughable that auction houses and the series of professional authenticators let slip 100 lots of fake wines to be checked, photographed, cataloged, and sold. What a world, jeez.
Agreed Jan. Shameful that they don’t have better practices.
Those Richebourg bottles look like a $9.99 Manager’s Special at the local supermarket.
I can’t find it on the net, but I seem to recall it was the 1947 Eglise Clinet that was one of the wines Rodenstock served to Parker at one of his mass tastings.
Great work, Don! Is that Rudy’s fingerprint on the fake L’Eglise Clinet? I assume that somewhere in Washington, enshrined in some little folder, is a study in black and white of his fingerprints for comparison…
Whatever happened to the lots discussed above in post 8909 from the Acker “Holy Grail” sale? Were they pulled, did they sell?
It’s disgusting that it still takes interested third parties to solve these sort of problems. How auction houses dont have their names trashed is beyond me; that being said I never participate in wine auctions. Most of them are too rich for my blood and I’m too used to dealing in bond to take the risk. I’d be embarrassed as a wine professional to even be associated to a company that let such a bad fraud through, to be honest. Maybe I’m missing something?
Presumably the bottles just go back to the owner, who if cynical will wait a bit and try to split them out and auction them with someone else in future? Really they should be seized for destruction, but I doubt that’s gonna happen eh
Don’t mess with Don!!
+100
it’s a future “Golden Cellar” Acker auction in Hong Kong.
Not questioning Don’s great work on this at all, but is it always the case that mismatched bottles from the same producer/vintage of older wines always indicate counterfeits? I thought that before say the 1960s or 1970s (not sure when), it was sometimes the case that merchants bottled the wine from barrels provided by the producer, and different merchants could bottle somewhat differently than the original Domaine producer?
It would be nice if auction houses instituted some type of policy of sending suspected counterfeit bottles to producers for approval or destruction. Even if THEY refuse to sell them, just returning them to the owner where they’re sure to find their way back to sale undermines trust in the entire secondary market for wine (which is, of course, not in their interest as an auction house). Legitimate collectors who are consigning authentic wine shouldn’t have issues with this policy.
Dave:
I wondered the same thing myself about the fingerprint. So far I do not know whether any of the listed lots in the Acker Holy Grail sale were pulled or not. I received an email from Acker’s general counsel assuring me that they would look at the lots. I am unable to access the results to check as they allow only registered members to do that.
I would imagine that if this were case you would still not expect to see so many different bottles “reunited” in one place.
Marcus:
You have actually asked about a couple of different concepts. Negociant bottling, which was typical prior to 1920, largely ended by the early 1970s. Both for negociants and domaines, they were buying bottles in substantial quantities and generally bottled the wines from a given vintage/vineyard combination in the same bottles - although there are some instances even into the modern era where the production may be large enough, and the producer purchased bottles from more than one glass supplier, so that bottles from two different glass suppliers might be used on the same wine. Depending on the producer in question, in some instances through the late 1930s bottles might be re-used (using carboy cleaners, etc). Thus, I have encountered a few bottles of the same wine in different glass from the same producer from pre-1940 vintages. It invariably raises questions and requires research and often contacting the producer. You are then left trying to determine if everything else matches – labels, capsules, cork length, etc. But finding wines with three different bottle colors or substantially different bottle shapes and heights after World War II for the same wine indicates something is very wrong.
During World War II, due to glass shortages and shortages of the metals that were used to create glass coloration, some producers returned to re-using bottles and also purchased some of the familiar wartime blue glass. Thus, for example, it is possible to find bottles of some DRC wines in both wartime blue glass and green glass from the vintages from 1941 to 1943. See the example below.
As disheartening as it is to see this still going on, it is a joy to watch Don at work. The pictures and then the descriptions remind me of the “Can you find the differences?” puzzles in Highlights for Children. This is Highlights for Wine Berserkers. Thank you Don for all the effort you put in to combat counterfeiting, and for the entertainment value.
Even after Don explains the problems, I still have difficulty spotting the issue in some cases. Which makes it super impressive that he can look at these and instantly spot all the warning signs and issues. The auction houses must hate him, he’s like the Scooby-Doo of the wine world. “And they would have gotten away with it…”
This one is pretty shocking. I’m also surprised at the level of wine being forged. The fact that people think it’s worth their time to fake Clerget Volnays or make up Mugnier Chambertins speaks to a level of infrastructure that’s impressive, even if the fakes are easily spotted. If they can do that, all they’re missing is to study up on their wine history. Scary thought. It definitely moves the needle for me on the “No one would bother faking this wine”-scale.
Don, How many lots did you inspect? 100/607 is bad enough, but it sounds like it could actually be far worse than that if there wasn’t photographs of a lot of them.
As for the Acker sale, the 1959 LT was pulled ahead of the start of the sale, the other commented lots stayed in and sold, a couple of them well beyond the estimates.