Eatdrink #79 September/October 2019

56 | September/October 2019
eatdrink.ca |@eatdrinkmag
Books
Wine Crime
In Vino Duplicitas
The Rise and Fall of a Wine Forger Extraordinaire
by Peter Hellman
Review by DARIN COOK
To fool a wine connoisseur with a
fraudulent bottle, a forger would
need to know, in equal measures,
wines that were real and fake.
Rudy Kurniawan, a 20-something Indonesian
immigrant living in Los Angeles, had the
wicked combination of a discerning palate
for the authentic stuff, and a criminal mind
capable of passing off the fake. Like a musician
with perfect pitch, he was described as having
“virtuoso nostrils” and had a taste for wine
that could match few others. His tastes were
so good they eventually seemed too good to
be true. With an author’s luck, Peter Hellman
happened to be at a wine auction which led
him down a journalistic path into the world of
counterfeit wine. Hellman’s In Vino Duplicitas:
The Rise and Fall of a Wine Forger Extraordinaire
(The Experiment, 2017) profiles this infamous
wine forger, the victims he duped along the
way, and the scar he swathed across the wine
industry.
After bursting onto the scene of wine
auctions in 2002, Kurniawan convinced
everyone he was a top-notch aficionado. He
brought the world’s best wines to dinner
parties and
wine tastings.
He charmingly
endeared
himself to the
most influential
characters at
wine auctions,
high-end
restaurants,
and
vineyards.
Not only was he an
expert taster, but also a shopaholic,
spending millions of dollars on cases of wine,
owning several thousands of bottles at any
one time in his revolving inventory of real and
forged wines. He did all of this with the skill
of an extraordinary con man. But when one
vintner came face-to-face with an obvious fake
from his own winery, Kurniawan’s unravelling
began.
In 2008, 22 bottles of red Burgundy from
Kurniawan’s collection were pulled from a
New York auction because the dates on the
bottles were 37 years prior to when the wine
was known to be produced. With his
reputation being tarnished by some
of the best collectors in the business,
his sales plummeted; even so, he could
not stop himself from continuing
to buy and his credit card debt
racked up. Suspicions rose further as
Kurniawan’s supply seemed limitless.
Where was he getting it all? Collectors
at auctions started to become more
cautious in spending their fortunes
on lots of wine that might or might
Author Peter Hellman