Wine is beauty, pleasure and history — and, now and then, crime. Where there is great value there is temptation, and the fine-wine world has seen fraud, forgery, extortion, theft and mislabelling on a spectacular scale. Here are five of the most extraordinary wine scandals and crimes ever committed — a rogues’ gallery in a glass1.
Quick facts
- In 1973, a great Bordeaux house was caught selling cheap wine as fine claret.
- The world’s priciest bottle — a “Jefferson” 1787 Lafite — is likely a fake.
- In 2010, a blackmailer threatened to poison the vines of Romanée-Conti.
- On Christmas 2014, thieves looted the French Laundry’s legendary cellar.
1. Winegate: Bordeaux’s blushing scandal (1973)
In 1973, one of Bordeaux’s grandest names fell from grace. The venerable house of Cruse et Fils Frères was caught buying ordinary wine from the Languedoc, doctoring it with chemicals, and selling it as genuine appellation Bordeaux — some two million bottles of it1. Dubbed “Winegate,” the affair shook the region’s reputation to its core and ended in convictions and ruin for the once-untouchable firm.
2. The world’s priciest bottle — and the electric engraver
In 1985, at a Christie’s auction in London, a dusty bottle of 1787 Château Lafite — engraved “Th.J.” and said to have belonged to Thomas Jefferson — sold to the Forbes family for a record £105,000 (about $156,000)2.
It was a sensation — and, almost certainly, a fraud. The bottle had been supplied by the German collector Hardy Rodenstock, and the billionaire William Koch, who bought other “Jefferson” bottles, later sued, alleging they were fakes3. Among the damning clues: the engraving appeared to have been made with an electric tool that did not exist in 1787. The saga became the bestselling book The Billionaire’s Vinegar.
3. Vines held to ransom: the DRC poison plot (2010)
Some wine crimes are pure thriller. In January 2010, Aubert de Villaine, co-owner of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti — the maker of the most expensive wine on earth — received a chilling letter: pay a ransom, or the domaine’s priceless old vines would be poisoned and killed4.
Pay one million euros, or the vines of Romanée-Conti die.— the blackmailer’s threat, 20104
The threat was real — a few vines had already been drilled and poisoned. In a tense sting, police caught the blackmailer, a man named Jacques Soltys, as he collected the ransom. Awaiting trial, Soltys took his own life in his cell. The world’s greatest vineyard had come within a whisker of being murdered.
4. The Christmas heist at the French Laundry (2014)
On Christmas Day 2014, while Thomas Keller’s three-Michelin-star French Laundry in Napa Valley was closed for renovations, thieves slipped in and cleaned out its cellar5. They made off with around 110 bottles of some of the rarest wine in America — including Screaming Eagle and Domaine de la Romanée-Conti — worth several hundred thousand dollars.
It was one of the most audacious wine heists ever, and for a time the bottles vanished. But such distinctive loot is hard to sell; much of it was tracked down, and two men were eventually convicted and sent to prison.
5. The forger in the kitchen: Rudy Kurniawan
No modern list is complete without Rudy Kurniawan, the most notorious counterfeiter in wine history. From his kitchen near Los Angeles he blended cheap wines, bottled them in old glass with fake labels, and sold tens of millions of dollars of counterfeit rarities to trusting collectors before he was caught and jailed in 20146.
| Crime | What happened |
|---|---|
| Winegate (1973) | Cheap wine sold as fine Bordeaux |
| The “Jefferson” bottle (1985) | A record-priced, probable fake |
| The DRC plot (2010) | Vines held to ransom |
| The French Laundry (2014) | A wine heist worth hundreds of thousands |
| Rudy Kurniawan (2012) | Counterfeiting rare wine in a kitchen |
Crime and the cup
Run through the rogues’ gallery and one truth stands out: wine attracts crime precisely because we love it so much1. The same qualities that make a great bottle precious — rarity, prestige, eye-watering value — are exactly what tempt the forger, the thief and the blackmailer. Every scandal has forced the wine world to grow a little more careful, a little less trusting. But as long as a single bottle can be worth a fortune, the oldest rule of crime will keep pouring out a fresh vintage: follow the money, and it leads, sooner or later, to the cellar.
Frequently asked questions
More from this day in wine history
See everything else that happened on February 19 — who was born, what was bottled, and which laws were signed.
Read more
- Rudy Kurniawan, the great wine counterfeiter
- Winegate: the 1973 Bordeaux scandal
- The great Pinot Noir fraud
References
- Invisible Bordeaux — Winegate: the scandal which shook Bordeaux in 1973. ↑
- The World of Fine Wine — The Billionaire’s Vinegar: the mystery of the world’s most expensive bottle. ↑
- Decanter — World’s most expensive bottle claimed fake as renowned collector sued. ↑
- VinePair — When the World’s Most Prestigious Vineyard Was Held for Ransom. ↑
- Wine Spectator — Two Men Indicted in French Laundry Wine Theft. ↑
- FBI — Rare Wine Dealer Sentenced in Counterfeiting Scheme (Kurniawan). ↑
Recommended reading
As an Amazon Associate, This Day in Wine History earns from qualifying purchases. Book recommendations are chosen independently.
Share This Story, Choose Your Platform!
Related Posts
