BOGUS
WINE
HUFFINGTON
08.12.12
ties of counterfeit wine,” Cornwell
notes. “I thought there must be
a way to stop him, even though I
knew what I was doing had a Don
Quixote quality.”
Says the Underground Wineletter’s John Tilson: “Don is an attorney, number one. So he’s used
to digging deep for stuff. Secondly,
he’s very diligent, and he’s very
thorough and he’s very careful.
And he has a passion for wine, and
a passion for this kind of digging.”
“Don is incredibly tenacious,”
adds Geoff Troy, the New York
wine merchant and expert on Burgundy who also eventually played
a key role in Kurniawan’s downfall. “He has blown the whistle on
a number of auction houses selling questionable wines.”
KEEP THE CHANGE,
SHIP THE EMPTIES
From 2002 to 2008, the slender
Kurniawan, a bespectacled wine
prodigy, bamboozled many in the
world of fine wine. He played the
role of free-spending rich kid with
a passion for old and rare Bordeaux and Burgundy — the holy of
holies in the temple of fine wine.
His background was, by design,
murky. He told some friends that he
attended Cal Stat