How do so many forgeries end up in one collection? Is the owner complicit, or did some forgers find a sugar daddy?
Arvid
Thanks for the update on Acker.
As to the Bonhams wines, one of the team members in Hong Kong had previously inspected the collection. I’m told that some of the the obviously counterfeit DRC and Liger-Belair were removed after his inspection. We reviewed every photo in the Bonhams catalog from the A1 Collection and checked the larger photos on line. I didn’t keep a count, but I’m going to guess that was roughly 200 different photos. So the percentage of fakes among the photos was very high. In a couple of cases – the purported 1999 Frederic Mugnier Gevrey wines and 1990 Maison Leroy Musigny – Bonhams didn’t include catalog or online photos. We initially questioned the lot descriptions and then followed up.
That’s a good question. As far as we know, no, the owner wasn’t complicit. I don’t know William Giauw personally, but one of the team members has met him and asked questions about the source of these wines. Mr. Giauw described a series of sources in Europe generally known to us to be the dodgiest and most frequent sources of counterfeit wines. I am really amazed that when the wines arrived at his cellar with all of the differently colored bottles and different sizes that the alarm bells didn’t start going off for him.
I’d also imagine that once someone was able to float counterfeits past him once they wagered they could do it again and he became a target.
Edit: And, its maybe easy to just dismiss it as just a guy with money getting taken and he’ll live, yet its still sad. Sad for him I’m sure in hindsight as its a bit embarrassing more than financial impact; and its sad for the industry as the rewards go to the thieves. The industry is incented to conveniently turn a blind eye. Just reading what Don puts in to this, its obviously not easy however it demonstrates what a little effort and research can prevent.
I recall the halcyon days of the early and middle 1990’s, when 1982, 1985, 1985, 1989, and 1990 Bordeaux were inexpensive and not economically worthwhile to counterfeit.
Building a collection then was a casual effort, which turned into a small fortune.
It is really the lack of effort which is astounding here.
What we do is not rocket science. In my case, it is very much like David Glasser said about Highlights for Children magazine at the doctor’s office, i.e. “What’s wrong with this picture?” Sure, it helps to have a sharp eye for detail and proportion, and it also helps to have compiled a huge file of exemplar labels over the years to refer to. The rest of it comes from doing what is usually quick research – either looking at Google images or running searches, or both. If you don’t know about a particular label or a particular Chateau or have doubts – simply look it up. For example, I didn’t really know the history of L’Eglise Clinet, but in less than three minutes I found a very detailed history of the producer and enough information to prove that the 1947 Chateau L’Eglise Clinet never existed as a wine label. After another three or four minutes I had a number of label exemplars which confirmed the printed history information.
People have counterfeited $20 bills…why not lesser wines?
Inexpensive Penfold’s wines get counterfeited. You can do a huge volume, make a ton of money and fly under the radar, especially when people think “why waste time counterfeiting that?”
Doesn’t have to be Grange to be profitable.
Thread drift, In Post 8937, there is a photo with 3 bottles of 1943 DRC. All three have too much ullage, with one actually below the neck label. Do people actually buy bottles like that to drink or just to say that they have the bottle? If the latter, I guess I care a bit less about whether they are being scammed. I occasionally buy bottles from my birth year (1951) but not with ullage like that!
There’s not much difference in the paper/ink/machinery needed to forge a $20 bill or a $100 bill. In fact the risk of someone checking a $100 bill is a lot higher, easier to get away with $20 bills a store clerk isn’t instructed to check.
For wine, there’s different bottle sizes and makes, different paper qualities/ages/colors, letter presses, inks, corks, stamps and foils etc, before we even get to methods of “aging” the above. I would imagine the cost to switch your production from one wine to another is really high, so it’d only be worth it to forge things that really pay out when sold.
On the flip side, the easiest forgery is refilling authentic bottles. Cuts down a lot of these steps, and is exponentially harder to find with just photos. But, in that case, access is the problem.
The recent Sassicaia example is really interesting and worrying to me. They did one, fairly modest thing really well (at least from the sight, apparently the wine they filled the bottles with wasn’t passable), and since they forged young wine it might be years before someone opens a bottle and starts asking questions. I’m really curious how they were tipped off actually… Scary prospect for the industry.
I was ITB in the 80s when such bottles were genuine. It wasn’t unusual to see fills like that on older bottles of DRC and for the most part, they were just fine. That bottle of La Tâche is pushing it, however.
Has anyone heard what Rudy’s status is, seems very vague on the information the USG provides and why we would let him stay here instead of deportation. I haven’t seen any updates in the news in a while but just been curious.
Don,
You should correct this. As I understood looking at the catalogue, this sale took place in NY, not HK–with the caveat of allowances for how sales tend to be “virtual” these days, so I don’t think it was in a central venue like a restaurant, as sales used to be.
Was there some marketing material that portrayed this as being in HK, or are you simply mistaken?
Others have been quick to comment and insinuate that a sale being in HK is a damning fact, so your false statement needs to be set right.
Thank you. Yes, I will fix that .
Jidhin
I am told that as of Friday evening Rudy was still in the ICE El Paso detention center awaiting deportation.
In related Rudy news, Sour Grapes is no longer on Netflix
I can’t wait for the sequel. Rudy goes to Hong Kong for Sour Grapes II.
So Sour Grapes 2: Recorked
Pray that he is safe from Covid-19. 
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That is hilarious, sir, well-played!