Fake Wine, Insanity, Counterfeiters and Crazy Buyers

The news that insanity may be offered as a wine counterfeiting defense (Kurniawan may plead insanity in trial) makes me think that the loony behavior may be on the other side of the bar.

According to that article, “During an FBI search of his LA home, agents found a counterfeit wine laboratory filled with thousands of fake labels for some of the world’s most expensive wines. “Nicknamed “Dr Conti” and “Mr 47″, among the wines Kurniawan allegedly sold were a double-magnum of a fake 1947 Pétrus for £20,000 in 2005 and a bottle masquerading as 1934 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti for £8,500 in 2006.”

It seems that anyone willing to pay that sort of money for geriatric wine has lost touch with reality and probably qualifies for institutional care to treat a bad case of necrophilia.

On the other hand, reaping massive profits from a few bits of paper and some ordinary plonk seems like the highly rational behavior of a sane and resourceful conman.

Think of what Treasury Wine Estates’ financials would look like today had they considered something along these lines rather than pouring their over-the-hill wines down the drain.