BOGUS
WINE
except to say, like the other auction
houses that have put Kurniawan’s
wines up for sale, that it would never knowingly sell counterfeit wines.
In January of this year, Cornwell discovered that Spectrum,
another U.S. auction house, was
preparing to sell a large consignment of Kurniawan wines in
London, including many scarce
bottlings of the Burgundy most
prized by collectors, Domaine de
la Romanee Conti. (Kurniawan’s
nickname was “Dr. Conti.”)
Cornwell’s warnings to the auction house were again ignored
HUFFINGTON
08.12.12
(Spectrum also declined to comment, a spokeswoman said). This
time, Cornwell decided to act. He
published a warning about the auction on Wine Berserkers, the most
popular online wine board and a
gathering place for Burgundy lovers.
“Don is a total bulldog. He took
this story and ran with it, which
took a lot of cojones,” says Doug
Barzelay, the New York lawyer
and Burgundy collector who also
played an important role in Kurniawan’s downfall. “You have to
remember that the auction took
place in England, where libel laws
favor the plaintiff. You could find
yourself in trouble over there for
printing something that’s the ab-
Cornwell
posted the
results of
his sleuthing
online;
the list of
Kurniawan’s
missteps
quickly went
viral.