The CNBC show about Rudy is being shown again this Monday the 19th at 10:00 PM.
Chris:
There is no comprehensive list that has ever been compiled, either by the government or by Maureen or by me. As for Sine Qua Non, Rudy loved the stuff, and I’m told that yes he produced some counterfeit Sine Qua Non wines though I have never seen them.
The government did end up compiling and publishing a list of the counterfeit wine labels that they called a “representative” list of the types of counterfeit labels that they found in Rudy’s house (so this is only a partial list). Nick Witman posted it back in 2014 and you will find it here: https://www.wineberserkers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1560445#p1560445
But as I said at the time and will now repeat here, it is a complete mistake to think that is the comprehensive list and that if your favorite wine is not on that list you’re home free. https://www.wineberserkers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1340040#p1340040:
For those of you that think Rudy only sold a half dozen top burgundies (DRC, Jayer, Vogue, Roumier, Rousseau and Ponsot), first growth Bordeaux and a half dozen top Pomerols, I’m afraid you’re going to have to adjust your thinking. Over the past couple of days I’ve been looking back at the lists of wine that were sold by Mr. Kurniawan and Mr. Castanos and there are a good number of other bordeaux, ranging from unclassified bottlings like Chasse-Spleen and Greysac through many of the second growths. There are also many other burgundies, and lots of different rhones, Italian wines, Spanish wines, Alsatian wines, Australian wines, Champagne, and California wines. The California wines include Screaming Eagle, Sine Qua Non, Schraeder, Scarecrow, Dalle Valle, Shafer, Araujo, Blankiet, Colgin, Pahlmeyer, Pride Mountain, Robert Foley, Dominus, Diamond Creek, Caymus, Heitz, Dunn, Chateau Montelena, Grace Family, Stag’s Leap, Ridge, Phelps, Whitehall Lane and Mondavi Reserve.
Note, that I’m not telling you that I know that all of those California wines were counterfeit, but rather that Rudy sold them at auction. But if you think he only went after the top 20 or so bordeaux and burgundies, that’s wishful thinking.
Obviously, some of the wines that were sold by Rudy in 2010 and 2011 were likely Rudy unloading some of his blending stock (such as the Chasse-Spleen and Greysac) in order to try to raise whatever cash he could. But on wines like Screaming Eagle, Sine Qua Non, Schraeder, Dalle Valle Maya, Scarecrow, Araujo, Colgin and others he would certainly have had the incentive to try and counterfeit them.
.
IIRC, they were the first TV show to tell the Rudy story.
So Jef Levy took a bottle of 1955 Leroy Chambertin bearing an Acker Merrall sticker that Levy claimed was a red flag for a likely counterfeit to a party with the evil villain John Kapon himself in attendance. Levy and Kapon and their friends drank the bottle and allegedly all agreed that the bottle did not taste like the 1955 Leroy Chambertin they had consumed previously – known to be Rudy Kurniawan bottles in Levy’s case. (But Levy admits that the HDH bottle was a “pretty dam[n] good” wine.) He then proceeded to throw away the allegedly counterfeit bottle, and shortly thereafter asserted a claim against Hart Davis Hart.
Mr Cornwell, is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?
To the curious incident of the bottle he sent to Hart Davis Hart.
He sent nothing to Hart Davis Hart.
That is the curious incident.
[Apologies to Arthur Conan Doyle.]
I believe you’re misreading what I wrote. I never said that Levy sent anything to Hart Davis Hart. Jef Levy took the bottle that he bought from HDH to New York where it was consumed at an after-party following a dinner at Atomix (with John Kapon in attendance). Levy threw the bottle away and later filed a claim and a lawsuit against Hart Davis Hart.
Tossing the potentially central evidence would compromise his claim based on the same. He would essentially be suing on the grounds that his allegation could not be disproven. Absurd.
That alone, which the lawyers and the courts refer to as “spoliation of evidence” (and which can be either intentional or negligent) should have been enough to get the claim dismissed. Jef Levy, who passed the California bar exam and maintains his license to practice on “inactive status” had to know that. It is yet another reason why his crazy claim makes no sense.
Don,
I think I read you perfectly. Unfortunately, this reference isn’t clear –
The dog that didn’t bark is one of the iconic exchanges in the Sherlock Holmes stories. A prize race horse, Silver Blaze, mysteriously vanishes from his stable over night. Inspector Gregson of Scotland yard is scouring the countryside for horse thieves. Inspecting the stables, Holmes notes the presence of a dog, who was there the night Silver Blaze vanished. Gregson asks,
“Mr Holmes, is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?”
“To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.”
“The dog did nothing in the night-time.”
“That is the curious incident,” remarked Sherlock Holmes.
Gregson is baffled, but Holmes is onto something. The dog should have barked, but didn’t. Why? Because it was an inside job.
Holmes explains at the end: “I had grasped the significance of the silence of the dog, for one true inference invariably suggests others. The Simpson incident had shown me that a dog was kept in the stables, and yet, though some one had been in and had fetched out a horse, he had not barked enough to arouse the two lads in the loft. Obviously the midnight visitor was some one whom the dog knew well.”
Now over to you -
The 55 Leroy should have been returned to Hart Davis Hart, but it wasn’t. Why?
“Levy and Kapon and their friends drank the bottle and allegedly all agreed that the bottle did not taste like the 1955 Leroy Chambertin they had consumed previously…He then proceeded to throw away the allegedly counterfeit bottle, and shortly thereafter asserted a claim against Hart Davis Hart.”
Anyway, take the compliment!
Thank you for the compliment, though in my case it wasn’t so profound.
Mystery of the Smucker’s jam in Rudy’s kitchen finally solved
2 Likes
In the words of Larry the Cable Guy, “I don’t care who you are, that’s funny!” ![[rofl.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/a/a7452fcd8e675af869f8da01174474a545b03944.gif "rofl"){kind=small}
Watched the updated version of American Greed last night. Unless I missed something, there was nothing new of substance.
Only difference I saw was the notation he was deported.
I’d heard about fake Mouton-Cadet in China, but get a load of this:
Spoiler alert!
Haven’t finished it yet!!!
Those are some tight margins at $3/bottle retail.
If anyone still has doubts over Jef Levy’s character, it’s worth watching this quite disgusting video of him groping Bai Ling in 2015: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5injmz
Posted a little earlier in this thread.
1 Like