15 May – Read a racy 4,000-word account of the story of Rudy to date by Benjamin Wallace, author of The Billionaire's Vinegar, just published in New York magazine, here. I understand that Wallace's friend Michael Steinberger, once wine correspondent of Slate, has been commissioned by Vanity Fair to cover the same ground. JancisRobinson.com is referred to obliquely in the account at 'British online wine media'.
The New York indictment of Rudy Kurniawan, arrested by the FBI for serial counterfeiting of fine and rare wine, can be read in gripping detail here.
(I should have published it as soon as I received it very early on Thursday morning, but this coincided with our departure for a couple of days in the country to prove to ourselves how well Nick is recovering from his recent operation. I apologise for the delay.)
However, the amount of detail is jaw-dropping (see Rudy's spare capsules and soaked-off labels below), even if the document is coy in not naming those who were duped and the auctioneers involved. I assume that those interested in this case will be able to fill in most of the blanks themselves. Living in the country with some of the strictest libel laws in the world, I think I will resist that particular temptation, although you have only to put 'Rudy' into our search box, choosing 'Rest of site' from the drop-down menu, to be enlightened.
