Wait, are you saying that’s not how to roll? 
Robert Parker quote from yesterday in response to the seeing the film: “I wouldn’t buy a bottle of mineral water from John Kapon”.
A little late Bob, a little late. As any veterans of Mr. Parker’s board might remember, he had a few kind words for Rudy and some of the ‘angry men’ fake-wine festivals, back in the day.
I very much enjoyed the movie (watched it twice), but yes, I do wish they had connected the dots with Patriarche. I have a hunch that some of that '62 La Tache that “Dr. Conti” brewed up was really Patriarche '59 Vosne Romanee (inter alia). The correct bottles and correct grape varietals surely reduced the time needed to convert a real case to a fake-o. But I appreciate the time constraints, and probably the desire to stay out of the weeds. Explaining Burgundy’s history of negociants and domaine bottling and the multiplicity of domaine names (ie, the true Ponsot Clos St. Denis) could easily have consumed too much time and been confusing to a general audience.
I also enjoyed the film, but only wish they had spent even more time showing the ridiculousness of the 12 Angry Men and their frequent boasting here (and elsewhere) of their expensive dinners at Cru. That being said, the scene where Jef Levy gets shot down is priceless. I also appreciated the contrast between Laurent Ponsot toasting his vineyard team top the PE guy who saw nothing more than a label and a status symbol. Great film!
Watched it last night. Such a crazy story.
Anybody watch the new documentary Sour Grapes on Netflix? Its about the Rudy Kurniawan wine fraud story. All of this nonsense was before my time in wine so I had no idea who he was to begin with. Very interesting. Most of us here probably weren’t in the position to buy the bottles he was counterfeiting in the first place because of their rarity and price, but I’m curious if anyone here has or knows someone that has been taken for a ride by him and if they were ever made whole again?
He’s certainly a character that made for a great story and his mystery makes him that much more attractive to curious minds. How did someone who was effectively a nobody rise to prominence so quickly and wiggle his way into the upper echelons of the social and wine worlds, and how did such a young guy have such a vast knowledge of everything wine related well beyond his years!? Fascinating…
Not sure why that thread didn’t show up in my search ![[scratch.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/4/42a16863a8714da3c1604419e3eb9206bb87aa50.gif "scratch"){kind=small}
Thanks for the redirect Neal ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
That is Christian Navarro, president of Wally’s Wine in Westwood, where that tasting takes place. Notice the W on the employee’s shirt when then walk into the store. Now your turn: Who is the brunette in the same scene that is poured a taste?
Bud
Very enjoyable. Even if I wasn’t into wine and the culture, I would still be left with a lot of questions about the players and Rudy’s family.
Jason
We watched this last night. It left me with one question asked by the investigator but never really answered. As Ponsot noted, it looks as though the process of creating each fake was laborious. Even once Rudy had the cocktail recipe down, it took an hour on average to make one. How could he possibly have made the thousands of allegedly fake bottles? They intimated that he had help from his family in Indonesia, but are they really suggesting that he shipped labels and bottles back home and then shipped the product back to the states?
In any event, it was a fascinating story well told. Good to see Don and Maureen doing their bulldog thing!
We watched this last night as well. I’m really surprised some people agreed to be in this film… they really didn’t come off very well.
Great to see you posting again. Hope you are well . . .
If you had the recipe down, and a super fancy printer, I can’t see how it would take one hour per bottle. And Bill Koch comes off as P.I.M.P. I love that guy
What exactly would a super fancy printer be? The devil is always in the details.
I am a firm believer he had some help. Think about how long it takes using an automated machine to bottle, cork, and label a pallet of wine. Now do that in small lots of 3-6-12 bottles in wood. Or singles. Getting all those labels to line up on the bottle just right with the others. Then do the math on what it is estimated that he produced over the years. And how was it all shipped and transported. Now use common sense as to what they found in his house during the warrant and it doesn’t add up.
If he was producing THAT much on a regular basis there should be more of a factory in his house, than the little that was found (I’m talking in regards to actual bottles and not all the fake labels he had). I’d hazard a guess his house was the blending, trial and error, make-a-templet location and any larger scale work was being done elsewhere. So the question is who was helping him?
He might have had someone producing the labels (hired it out), and helping collecting corks, etc. Then he could have it shipped to the US to produce. Also, let’s remember that labor in foreign countries is cheap, and going through garbage to look for stuff (bottles) at restaurants can be hired out on the cheap. Those people would not put two and two together. He could have even purchased some things from eBay. The hardest part would be getting the blend right. Plus one you convince a bunch of rich people as well as connoisseurs that the fakes are the real thing, your blend becomes the real thing (afterall, who has tasted these wines enough, there could be bottle variation and wines age differently based on storage). Once that is done, then he is golden. Filling takes no time and labeling a few days once a system is down.
Watched it last night and thought the same thing about the house being the lab with production offsite.
I would disagree. The easy part is the blending. Start with good wine, blend with other good wine, and you generally get good wine. Most people can’t taste the difference due to label bias, never tasted that vintage or wine before, or they only had previous faked bottles.
I’d say the harder part is getting the bottle, label, and capsule as accurate possible. That’s something people can easily spend time comparing to other exemplars.