US million dollar hoax

Following the indictment of an American fraudster for counterfeiting circa €1 million worth of rare wines, consumers are raising doubts about how reliable the palates and comments are of many of the world’s so-called wine experts.

They were fooled by these wines, according to an article in the English newspaper The Mail.

Many of the world’s most respected taste buds bought, sold and wrote about Rudy Kurniawan’s wine collection, many of which turned out to be re-marked fakes from the Napa Valley.

International wine auctioneers, such as John Kapon, expert Burgundy critics like Allen Meadows, wine shop owner Paul Wasserman, as well as the wider wine industry were among the tasters who tried the wines.

The 35-year-old faces up to 100 years in jail.

An article in the latest New York magazine points out how many of Mr Kurniawan’s apparently sought-after wines, of which he sold more than €27.5 million worth in 2006 alone, are alleged to be counterfeits.

When the FBI arrested Mr Kurniawan in March, they found explicit evidence of the scam in his California home.

Thousands of photocopied wine labels for top vintages, including 1950 Pétrus and 1947 Lafleur, Lafite, and Romanée-Conti were found next to hundreds of old and new corks. An automatic device for inserting them was also found.

There were also bottles of cheap Napa Valley wine labelled with names of the vintage Bordeaux wines they allegedly intended to impersonate, and there were other bottles soaking in the kitchen sink, their labels about to be removed.