WINE FRAUD WEBSITE
COUNTERFEIT wine is a very real and growing problem in the industry as it’s proving nearly impossible to keep up with the flood of fakes being brought to market. But now Maureen Downey, the fine wine authenticator and consultant who was instrumental in bringing down fraudster Rudy Kurniawan is launching winefraud.com this March. The subscription website will be a resource for vendors and buyers of fine and rare wines, providing information about wine counterfeiting and authentication. The free-content part of the website will include a list of vendor members, all of whom will have been personally vetted. Downey, who trades as Chai Consulting, says that, by her calculation, the total value of fake wine Kurniawan and his presumed accomplices dumped on the market between 2OO2 and when he was arrested amounted to $13O million at the time of the original sale. The value of these wines today is considerably more than double that – and many are still on the market – she claims. As an example, Kurniawan sold fake 1962 DRC Romanée-Conti in 2OO3/2OO4 for around $3OOO to $4OOO. Today, Wine Searcher’s database shows a bottle of the same wine to be worth an average of $11,5OO, and, according to Downey, there are plenty of fakes of the same wine still circulating.
The new site will include a “Wine Authentication 1O1” section, covering everything to do with counterfeiting but not giving enough information for would-be counterfeiters to take up the “profession”. It will also include the stories of all the principal wine fraudsters, and regular articles related to counterfeiting and authentication. Regular contributors to the new site, along with Downey herself, will include Michael Egan, a former Sotheby’s wine expert, and specialist lawyer Jason Hernandez.
The website plans to create a logo for use by its professional vendor members on their own sites to indicate that they are fully committed to fighting counterfeits and are up-to-date about the issue. Membership fees to access the site have not yet been announced, however there will be various tiers including one for enthusiasts, another for collectors and finally a professional membership which will include information about fraudulent wines that might pop up, as well as lists of vendors that might be trying to sell bad wines.
