WSJ asks if Pétrus worth it

[AlexR]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 17718.html

Alex R.

PS: we should be so lucky...

[Chasse-Spleen]

I think we should make him an honorary BWEer. What a great wine article!

[DavidG]

I enjoy Jay Mcinerney's writing, wine and otherwise, including this article. In light of the Rudy K scandal and his past involvement with John Kapon and Acker, including an episode where Rudy was invited to independently inspect Eric Greenberg's wines offered for auction, the following stood out:

What made the Bridgehampton tasting especially exciting was the likelihood that we were drinking the real thing. According to John Kapon of Acker Merral & Condit, who auctioned the wines, they were purchased on release and remained in a single cellar in Switzerland until independent third-party inspectors employed by the auction house examined them and reviewed photographs of the bottles with the château.

[Michael-P]

David:

Even if AMC might have been cozy with RK and a bit lax in their inspections at times, I think the chateau's review, even if only photos, is a good mitigant of the risk in this case. Besides, didn't the writer previously identify a fake and this time he did not express any concerns?

Loved the article though!

Michael-P

[Chasse-Spleen]

I've always been somewhat impressed by the idea of high-level forgers, such as art forgers, for instance. I mean, if you can paint almost as well as a master, that's impressive enough. But what a crazy way to make a buck, right? I mean, it takes a lot of effort - why not just use those talents to make money legally? Anyway, on this line of thought, if you are going to forge or fake a bottle of Petrus, for example, what do you put in there? Le Pin? It seems like a rather expensive way of making a buck. I guess you are doubling or tripling your money, or more. But just to get the wine angle going here, if you (this means you!) the average BWEer in the street, were going to fake a bottle of 1989 Petrus, for example, what would you put in there? I guess part of what they go on is the possibility that the bottle will only be opened when they are long gone. There is also the possibility that somebody with access to very talented lawyers will take it right home and open it that night.

[DavidG]

I see where my post looks to be casting doubt on the authenticity of the wines. That wasn't really my intent. I just found it very amusing to read this in light of the past year's revelations. No doubt John Kapon and AMC are playing it extra cautiously these days.

[Houndsong]

Dominus (not that I've had one).

Greed and covetousness are two sides of the same coin.

[Chasse-Spleen]

Thank you, Hound, for participating. And for giving me the time of day. So, Dominus? You're kidding, right? As usual? Isn't Dominus a cab based wine? And you'be never had it. Ha ha! Yes, its a difficult gig these days. Ha ha @#$%&!

[DavidG]

I don't know how guys like Rudy faked the wines. There is some evidence that he bought a lot of cheap older burgs and used those to create his fakes. A lot of the TNs from Rudy tastings with "prominent collectors" reflect on the vibrancy and freshness of the wines. Hard to imagine that coming from old cheap burgs. So either he topped them up with some younger wines or the "experts" we're just hoodwinked by the setting and hype. It's also possible (likely even for some of the dinners where wines were ordered off the list) that some of those were genuine wines used as bait to lure in the marks. Rudy collected the empties from these dinners and no doubt used them for his fakes.

So there's more to running a successful scam than what's in the bottle. What's in the bottle may be least important, with hype and trappings, labels and corks and capsules and the bottle itself all being more important for creating the impression of authenticity necessary to make the sale. Which is the crook's primary goal. What's amazing to me is that Rudy continued to operate successfully for several years after he'd been identified as a fraudster by guys who returned wines they'd bought at auction. The auction houses knew, yet his wines were still accepted by some of them.

To answer Chasse's question, if I were running a scam like that, I'd probably use an old cheap Pomerol as my fake '89 Petrus. Maybe an '88 or '87 de Sales or something similar. And hope that when the bottle is opened it will either have changed hands many more times or that the drinker will either not know what to expect or chalk it up to the risk of bad storage and the "no great wines, only great bottles" maxim.

[salilb]

I enjoy Jay Mcinerney's writing, wine and otherwise, including this article. In light of the Rudy K scandal and his past involvement with John Kapon and Acker, including an episode where Rudy was invited to independently inspect Eric Greenberg's wines offered for auction, the following stood out:

What made the Bridgehampton tasting especially exciting was the likelihood that we were drinking the real thing. According to John Kapon of Acker Merral & Condit, who auctioned the wines, they were purchased on release and remained in a single cellar in Switzerland until independent third-party inspectors employed by the auction house examined them and reviewed photographs of the bottles with the château.

Leaves a rather bad taste in my mouth and only adds to my incredibly low opinion of McInerney as a writer on wine.

Keep in mind that Jay McInerney's attended and written on various dinners of Acker's/Kapon's or other events such as La Paulee, sometimes in absurdly fawning/starry eyed terms like in this piece.

For a wine journalist, he doesn't seem to have paid much attention to the recent questions raised over Acker/Kapon's sale of, and failure to authenticate various fakes.

[Chasse-Spleen]

Thanks for your detailed explanation, David. I guess you're right, the wine is probably one of the least important parts of the trick. Faking the caps/foil, corks, labels and all that would certainly be harder, given the amount of available similar wine to stick in there.

[DavidG]

I guess I come at it from a completely different perspective Salil. I look at McInerny's writing as entertainment, not as investigative or even news reporting. I regard his wine writing similarly to his fiction (no pun intended, but I left myself wide open there!). Chacun a son gout...