In Vino Duplicitas

The Rise and Fall of a Wine Forger Extraordinaire

By: Peter Hellman

Narrated by: Charles Constant

Few gain entry to the privileged world of ultrafine wines, where billionaires flock to exclusive auction houses to vie for the scarce surviving bottles from truly legendary years. But Rudy Kurniawan, an unknown 20-something from Indonesia, was blessed with two gifts that opened doors: a virtuoso palate for wine tasting and access to a seemingly limitless (if mysterious) supply of the world's most coveted wines.

After bursting onto the scene in 2002, Kurniawan quickly became the leading purveyor of rare wines to the American elite. But in April 2008, his lots of Domaine Ponsot Clos Saint-Denis red burgundy - dating as far back as 1945 - were abruptly pulled from auction. The problem? The winemaker was certain that this particular burgundy was first produced only in 1982.

Journalist Peter Hellman was there, and he would closely investigate as a singular cast of characters - including a Kansas-born billionaire, a wine-loving young prosecutor, and a crusty FBI agent - worked to unravel the biggest con in wine history. Whether driven by the love of wine or of justice, all were asking the same question: Was the mild-mannered Kurniawan himself a dupe? Or had one young man - with little experience and few connections - ensnared the world's top winemakers, sellers, and drinkers in a web of deceit?

©2017 Peter Hellman (P)2017 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Heady, intoxicating...shines a light on the esoteric and intriguing world of ultrarare, ultrafine wines." ( Foreword)

Fascinating read for lovers of wine history

Very interesting. Just gets a little dry with the endlessly derailed references to various wines and vintages. If you enjoyed Billionaire's Vinegar, you will enjoy this.

Fascinating Story poorly told.

I appreciate the wine writer tried his hand at "true crime" but he should have stuck with wine and let a real drama writer write this one. He just can't put together the drama or the mystery. Which is too bad, because there is plenty of it here.

Wow... I couldn't stop listening!

Really enjoyed it, the story kept my ears glued to the details. The one thing that threw me was how it jumped back and forth on Rudy's age, and how some specifics were repeated at later points in the book having me think that u somehow jumped back to the previous chapter where it was mentioned earlier.
The narrator was great, his pronunciation of the French, Italian wines were fluent. I'm going to watch the Doc Sour grapes and see I guess a visual of some of the things heard in this book. I dont know if theres a movie about this counterfeiter, but I sure would love to see a movie based off of how this book was written. Looking forward to listen to it again in the future. 5* for sure.

well narrated and respectful of the real persons i

great story, lots of things learnt here about rare wines. i like the story is respectful of every character while informing on what was done illegally and in ignorance. looking forward for this book tobe translated in french so i can offer it to my family.

Nothing i didn’t know

I was hoping for more insight into the fake wine scandal. Nothing much new most can be learned in “Sour Grapes” documentary