Fake wine - Again!
I'm reading on the Wine Searcher site (subscription required) that Rudy Kurniawan is back in business - the fraud business!
Now that he has served his 10-year prison sentence for counterfeiting wine and been deported from the United States, he is, according to reports, back to doing what he knows best.
Moreover, he has fans paying him to create fake wines.
Wine fraud expert Maureen Downey has uncovered photos and tasting notes from a dinner held in Singapore in July at the exclusive Pines Club. Kurniawan was tasked with creating fake versions of 1990 DRC Romanée-Conti and 1990 Petrus, which seven guests tasted against the originals. Most of the tasters preferred the fakes.
The description of the event posted on Downey's site Wine Fraud says that Kurniawan starred in a similar event just over a month earlier, at which most of the 15 guests also preferred his fake versions of 1990 Domaine Jacques-Frederic Mugnier Le Musigny and 1982 Château Cheval Blanc to the originals.
The notes written by a guest are fawning: "So here we are again – the same setting, a smaller party of seven, to experience again the magic of Rudy's vinous knowledge, imagination and craft." And in conclusion: "Mr Rudy Kurniawan is a vinous genius."
So, ask yourself, what is he serving that his 'guests' prefer over Petrus 1990? My wife immediately said 'maybe he's claiming the real Petrus is the false Petrus , or they are both fakes!'
I have never tasted Petrus 1990. In fact I've never tasted Petrus of any vintage but I'd like to think that I would appreciate it if I ever get to taste. But what is he serving that they prefer? Petrus with a few grams extra of sugar? Another top end Pomerol/St Emilion?
I actually don't think it matters - If I had attended that tasting and preferred the 'fake' wine, I'd consider it a waste of a lot of money (no mention of what it cost to attend but I doubt it was cheap!)
I think I'll stick to the Petit Verdot by Belle-Vue 2018 that is arriving in stock shortly - at €35 per btl