spotlight || scandal
Faking It Oenophiles are sobering up to the fact that a lot of collectible wine is counterfeit. | BY ALYSSA FORD
PHOTOGRAPHY BY LYNN SOMMER
T
he magic duo Penn & Teller once ran a clever experiment at Villa Piacere, a chic Los Angeles bistro. They hired a silver-tongued “water steward” to peddle several high-end still waters, including Mt. Fuji Zen Water (“known throughout the Far East for its clean and bracing flavor”) and Amazōn, with an exotic Amazonian spider in the bottle “to add to the medicinal qualities of the water.” Restaurant goers responded enthusiastically, even though the rarified waters — each florally described in a leather-bound menu — cost as much as $7 per glass. “It does taste very glacial,” said one diner. “Yeah, this one I can really tell the difference,” said another. “The Amazōn is an excellent diuretic and antitoxin,” added the connoisseur. The diners relished every sip. That is, until the water steward revealed it was all just a ploy and that he had actually filled the bottles using a garden hose. Penn & Teller’s experiment demonstrated the hypnotic power of marketing. The magicians didn’t know it, but they weren’t the only ones conducting a behavioral experiment back in 2003. That fall, a mysterious wine snob named Rudy Kurniawan made his social debut. He hosted a $4,800-per-person vertical wine tasting at Melisse in Santa Monica, California,
featuring a pair of 1921 Pétrus magnums, two of the rarest and most coveted bottles of wine in existence. Only, they weren’t. Kurniawan filled old bottles with mixes of his own invention — a little oxidized Bordeaux for an aged flavor, some Napa Cab for brightness, some Château Pichon for economy. His long con ended with his arrest in 2012; this August, Kurniawan finally was sentenced to 10 years in prison for scamming more than $30 million from wine collectors. And there have been others. This spring, a ring of seven wine forgers was arrested in Russia; investigators discovered 20 warehouses associated with the operation and more than 400 bottles of fake Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, worth at least $2.75 million if they were real. In January, reporters broke the story about The White Club, a private wine and champagne club using mostly counterfeit bottles. Julian LeCraw Jr. still has not settled his case with the Antique Wine Company; the Atlanta high roller alleges that the distributor knowingly sold him a fake bottle of 1787 Château d’Yquem for $91,400. And then there’s the original wine scammer, Hardy Rodenstock, who, in 1985 sold a bottle of Château Lafite Rothschild to Christopher Forbes for $157,000. The schemer’s cronies etched the bottle with the initials “Th.J.” to
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Risky Business The best — and worst — bets for steering clear of counterfeit vino.
Lowest Risk • Wines purchased directly from the vineyard • New vintages
Highest Risk • • • •
make it appear as though it was meant for the colonial cellar of Thomas Jefferson. The cascading and accelerating scandals have put pressure on the industry. The Liv-ex Fine Wine 100 index, an industry benchmark that tracks the price of 100 fine wines, is down 64 percent (at press time) from its high in June 2011. Jancis Robinson, an influential wine critic who traditionally spent all her energy on tasting notes, now devotes a significant portion of her coverage to wine fraud. Some of the most respected voices in the industry got snake-oiled by Kurniawan: critic Neal Martin, Burghound publisher Allen Meadows and the late restaurateur Charlie Trotter. Even Robert Parker, the “emperor of wine” himself, was hoodwinked. In Minnesota, top-tier wine consultants and collectors are more vigilant than ever. Former UnitedHealth executive Bill McGuire hired New York wine consultant Kevin Swersey to manage his extensive collection in Orono — and to help ferret out fake bottles. Jadin Bragg, a wine collector and accounting executive who lives in Prior Lake, says he’s now extremely wary of buying collectible bottles. “Lately, I’ve been buying newer vintages directly from the vineyards and just laying them down to age,” he notes. “I would be extremely wary of buying an old bottle right now.” Mike Wigley, owner of Bacchus Partners in Wayzata, keeps his bottle of “1982” Pétrus on top of a cabinet, right where he can see it. “Every time I come in here, I see it up there and it reminds me how important it is to stay vigilant,” he says. Wigley paid about $2,500 for the bottle. It would have been a great deal — had it been the real thing. “Look there,” Wigley says, pointing to the cork in the bottle, through the green glass. Inked clearly on the cork is the year 1983, signifying that a counterfeiter placed a fresh label on an inferior vintage to reap the price difference. (On the current market, a bottle of 1983 Pétrus sells for $1,800, while a 1982 Pétrus sells for $6,000.) Charles Curtis, a West St. Paul native and former Christie’s head of wine for Asia, says he has several private clients who keep him on retainer. Evaluating bottles for fraud is now an important
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Bottles that cost more than $1,000 Wine from coveted chateaus in Bordeaux or Burgundy Wines older than 30 years Vintage wines bought via auction or retail
A Recipe for Wine Fraud Wine Fraud Here’s how those who fake it make it.
Baron Philippe de Rothschild Château Mouton (1945) 2 parts 1988 Château Cos d'Estournel 1 part 1990 Château Palmer Margaux 1 part 2000 California Cabernet
Domaine de la Romanée-Conti (1940s) 1 bottle 2006 Marcassin Blue Slide Ridge Pinot Noir
Domaine de la Romanée-Conti (1950s) 1 bottle 1990 Labouré-Roi Gevrey-Chambertin
Château Belles-Graves, Lalande de Pomerol (1940s to 1960s) 1 bottle 2007 Duckhorn Vineyards Merlot
Obtain empty wine bottles for your desired vintage through unscrupulous sommeliers at fancy restaurants or by scouring wine auctions for important vintages with severe ullage (evaporation). Carefully uncork bottle with a two-prong cork puller. Mix selected vintages and pour into bottle. Use a wine recorking machine to seal bottle and melt wax for a new capsule. Sell for mega profit. Recipes provided — to the FBI — by wine fraudster Rudy Kurniawan.
spotlight || scandal
Foiling the Fraudsters To combat criminals, winemakers are using these high-tech techniques.
Bubble Tags A plastic gel sticker applied partly on the neck of the bottle and partly on the capsule. The sticker has a translucent square with a documented pattern of tiny bubbles. If the sticker is pulled, the bubbles are disrupted from their highly specific sequence. Wineries Onboard: Château Lafite Rothschild (2012 to present), Château Latour (2011 to present), Château Margaux (2011 to present), Chateau Montelena (2009 to present), Château Palmer (2009 to present), Domaine Ponsot (2010 to present), Hartwell Estate (2005 to present)
Embossed Bottles An old-school technology that’s making a bit of a comeback, partly because comparatively few Châteauneuf-du-Pape or Château Haut-Brion bottles have been seen on the fake-wine market. Embossing is a fused glass technique that creates a 3-D design on the bottle’s smooth glass surface. Wineries Onboard: Château Haut-Brion (1957 to present), Chateau St Jean (1998 to present), Châteauneuf-du-Pape (1939 to present)
Laser-Etched Bottles Design or serial number engravings on the bottle made using a laser. Wineries Onboard: Château Lafite Rothschild (1996 to present), Château Margaux (2011 to present), Château Mouton Rothschild, Penfolds (1994 to present), Pétrus (1996 to present)
RFID Chips Scannable radio frequency identification chips embedded in the glass. The latest versions use a tiny antenna inserted in the neck of the bottle that deactivates when the wax or foil capsule is removed. Scan the RFID chip with your smartphone to find out whether the antenna is still on. Wineries Onboard: Château Le Pin (2012 to present), Harlan Estate (2004 to present), Opus One (2008 to present) aspect of his business. “I would say it’s not unreasonable to think that upward of 80 percent of certain highly collectible wines are fake,” says Curtis. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the vast majority of wine that purports to be, say, a 1921 Pétrus is fake. I would go even as far to say that likely 100 percent of all 1973 Mouton is fake.” The wine world is built on the expertise of critics and super tasters such as Parker. But if even they can be swindled by an artfully torn and tea-stained label, what then? “In any case,” says Curtis, “I would remind people that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. If someone tells you they found a hidden cache of 1945 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, I would advise you to hold on to your wallet and run away very quickly.”
Security Paper Not paper at all, but woven fabric. Wine labels now feature some of the technologies used to make paper currency, such as ultraviolet signatures, watermarks and bits of micro-text that can be seen only under magnification. Wineries Onboard: Chateau d’Yquem (1984 to present), Harlan Estate (1990 to present), Pétrus (1988 to present)
Tagged Ink Special ink that changes color when viewed with a scanner. Wineries Onboard: Château Margaux (2008 to present), Colgin Cellars (2007 to present)
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Private Eye
Give your wine a home diagnostic.
What You’ll Need: a computer, a jeweler’s loupe (or portable microscope or high-powered magnifying glass), a critical eye
Step One: Fire up your computer. Do a Google image search for your vintage for reference.
Step Two: Using your jeweler’s loupe, examine each detail of the bottle from top to bottom. Pay attention to spelling and placement on the label. Look closely at its design. See any pixelation? If so, a home printer may have been used to manufacture the label. Step Three: If you bought the wine for drinking (and not as an investment), remove the foil or wax capsule. Using your jeweler’s loupe, look at the very top of the cork. Are there small depressions on either side? That could be a sign that the cork previously was removed with a two-pronged cork puller, a favorite device of wine fraudsters.
Step Four: Scrutinize the cork through the glass of the bottle. Ensure the vineyard and date information is correct; a 1982 vintage, for example, should have “1982” stamped on the cork. Examine the date for any signs of tampering or manipulation, such as the number 3 made to look like an 8.
Step Five: Suspect your bottle is a fake? Tell your source and try to get your money back.