Secondly, I'm recalling that line about too much money and not enough common sense.īut it's actually because Kurniawan sold the fake wine to Koch that he was caught. Kurniawan also sold fake wine to - get this - Bill Koch. And Kurniawan was starting to fray at the edges, getting caught in his own web of lies and deceit. But the head of the house that makes that wine stated they hadn't started production until 1982.Īs I always say, if you're going to lie, do it right. Bottles of a particular vintage - 1945 to 1971 - started to turn up. "These were the days of the first dotcom boom, when Silicon Valley had more money than sense, a combination which has always been drawn to fine wines."Īnd it may have taken a while, but eventually some strange things began to show up in the market. He bought so much Domaine de la Romanée-Conti he became known as " Dr Conti", which presumably later amused some of those he defrauded.Īt one auction in 2006, Kurniawan sold $24.7 million - yeah million - dollars worth of wine, beating the previous record by a staggering 10 million dollars. ![]() ![]() And then he was suddenly at all the big auctions, both buying and selling some of the 20th century's greatest wines. Soon he was obsessed with Burgundies, most of which are made from the same grapes as pinot noir but it's a far more expensive wine, and more famous. He could accurately tell you where the grapes were grown, identify certain vintages, and as his palate and taste for wine outside California grew, so did his renown. So here's something really interesting about Kurniawan - he actually had the kind of palate for wine some people would kill for. He was instantly sharing really pricey bottles at lavish dinners he held, and was more than happy to show off his refined palate. The story he told was that he was from a wealthy Sino-Indonesian family who had ties to the wine industry and soon he was making a splash on the wine scene in L.A., courting directors and producers and lovers of rare wines. From his swept back hair and fancy suits to the incredibly pricey bottles of wine he shared with friends and strangers alike, Rudy seemed to have no limits - for wine, for conversation, or with his money. He supposedly came from money - that's what most people knew about him right away.
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