#ReadThis In Vino Duplicitas The Rise and Fall of a Wine Forger Extraordinaire by Peter Hellman @experimentbooks @HachetteUS
It's not who you know, it's WHOM YOU KNOW and now we know of Rudy Kurniawan, though we are not certain we'd like to know him. We have never met. You most definitely will be enlightened by this tale if you are unfamiliar with his infamy, or perhaps you learned the hard way. We like how the author references the absolutely amazing Carl Bernstein (and P.S. have you seen his son on guitar for Taylor Swift?) in the Author's Note-we understand Wine Spectator uncovered this story a la Bernstein-type investigative reporting which most obviously is the gold standard.
Right off the bat we see they are correct on page 3: yes, it is about levels of discernment. We recall tales also of fraudulent olive oil however that trades at much lower levels. This is all a bit "Catch Me If You Can" and we also applaud the Michael Lewis reference on page 28 as The Big Short is a total must-read as is all that is by Michael Lewis (and if you thought Peachy was like the human piranha you would hardly be the first to say so).
For all that embrace the acting profession at any level, Rudy certainly was a masterful actor. Read up on page 77 in regards to con man...confidence! This is a colorful tale and full of drama and wheeling and dealing. We also learned something about how ultraviolet flashlights work (p. 121): it literally elucidates fraud. And oooh we absolutely adore the Gatsby-esque conclusion, spot on!
After we read this book, we watched this which we would also recommend.
In Vino Duplicitas is Highly Recommended by Whom You Know and is a must for all collectors in general, but most especially, collectors of fine wine.
True crime pairs well with fine wine in the astonishing story of Rudy Kurniawan, perhaps the most notorious—and unlikely—wine forger in history
Few gain entry to the privileged world of ultrafine wines, where billionaires flock to exclusive auction houses to vie for the scarce surviving bottles from truly legendary years. But Rudy Kurniawan, an unknown twentysomething from Indonesia, was blessed with two gifts that opened doors: a virtuoso palate for wine tasting, and access to a seemingly limitless (if mysterious) supply of the world’s most coveted wines.
After bursting onto the scene in 2002, Kurniawan quickly became the leading purveyor of rare wines to the American elite. But in April 2008, his lots of Domaine Ponsot Clos Saint-Denis red burgundy—dating as far back as 1945—were abruptly pulled from auction. The problem? The winemaker was certain that this particular burgundy was first produced only in 1982.
Journalist Peter Hellman was there, and he would closely investigate as a singular cast of characters—including a Kansas-born billionaire and self-proclaimed “hoarder,” a dignified Burgundian winemaker, a wine-loving young prosecutor, and a crusty FBI agent who prepared for the case by reading French Wine for Dummies—worked to unravel the biggest con in wine history. Whether driven by the love of wine or of justice, all were asking the same question: Was the mild-mannered Kurniawan himself a dupe? Or had one young man—with little experience and few connections—ensnared the world’s top winemakers, sellers, and drinkers in a web of deceit?
