Super sleuths in the wine business must study thecork, glass, sediment, wrapping, labels and how full a bottle of wine is toascertain whether it's the real deal. And as two wealthy wine collectors cantell you as they square off in U.S. court over questionable bottles, even thatat times is not enough.
Testimony began Wednesday in a civil trial that threatens topop the cork on the dirty secrets of the wine auction world, which like the artmarket has been stung in recent years by a proliferation of fakes.
William Koch, a yachtsman and collector, suedonetime-billionaire businessman Eric Greenberg in U.S. District Court over$320,000 he spent in 2005 on two dozen bottles of wine that turned out to beduds.
It's heartbreaking for a true collector to learn that wineis inauthentic because it's more than just a bottle and a flavor, Koch'sattorney John Hueston said.
"Koch will say these are links to history," hesaid, adding that great wines transport people to another era. "It's notjust the juice in the package."
Greenberg asserted his innocence as he took the stand as oneof the trial's first witnesses.
"I wouldn't sell a fake wine," he said. "I'venever intentionally sold fake wine in my life."
Koch, the brother of famous industrialists and conservativepolitical supporters David and Charles Koch, is seeking compensation for the$320,000, along with unspecified damages. The trial may yet end in asettlement.
The dangers of trading in rare wines was already apparent toKoch, who learned in 2005 that four bottles of French wine he believed had beenonce owned by Thomas Jefferson were fake.
Since then, he's been on a bit of a crusade against winefakery, having sued wine companies, auction houses and Greenberg, saying incourt papers that counterfeiters for years "have duped wine collectorsinto paying millions of dollars for near worthless bottles of wine."
Greenberg years ago capitalized on the growing interest inthe sale of alcohol for investment purposes, becoming one of the world's topowners of vintage wine, with a collection of more than 70,000 bottles.
According to court documents, Greenberg earned about $9million when he sold 17,000 bottles of wine at the sale where Koch made hispurchases, reducing his collection by about a quarter.
Koch was duped by an auction brochure that promised buyersthe "greatest wines of all time" and "extremely rare"bottles dating to the early 1800s, Hueston said.
Koch paid as much as $30,000 for some bottles, includingseveral purported to be from the 1800s. Those included a $22,542 bottle ofChateau Lafite Rothschild from 1805, a $29,172 bottle of Chateau LafiteRothschild from 1811 and a $33,150 magnum of Chateau Lafite Rothschild from1870. The oldest bottles are no longer part of the court case.
Unscrupulous wine dealers have been known to putfine-vintage labels on cheaper bottles and try to pass them off as the realthing. Greenberg is not alleged to have done that himself, but Koch's lawyerssay he should have known something was amiss.
An investigation revealed that Greenberg had been warned byexperts that bottles in his collection were not authentic and decided to pushthem on unwitting buyers at his auction rather than toss them, Hueston said.
Greenberg is not to blame for any bad bottles of wine Kochbought, said Arthur Shartsis, one of the defendant's lawyers.
A catalog for the sale warned buyers that the wine was beingsold "as is" without any promises as to its authenticity.
Further, Greenberg tried to remove bogus bottles himselfbefore the sale and he exposed the corks on bottles so buyers could examinethem prior to the sale, Shartsis said. He also used an established auctionhouse with a good reputation that inspected the bottles to aid the pursuit ofauthenticity, the lawyer said.
On the stand, Greenberg explained how he quickly refundedmoney to a buyer once who claimed he had sold fake wine.
"I stood behind my wine as I always do and gave them arefund," Greenberg said. "I have nothing to hide."
Greenberg maintains through his lawyers that the ultimatetest is to taste the wine itself, a luxury that also can devalue bottles thatcan cost thousands of dollars.
"The only way to know ... is to taste what's inside thebottle," Shartsis said.
Shartsis was not permitted to tell jurors that Koch is abillionaire, but he dropped some hints.
He noted that Koch spent $3.7 million buying2,600 bottles of wine from Greenberg and paid a man more than $75,000 daily fortwo days to make his bids for him at the auction. He criticized Koch forfailing to hire people to inspect the bottles he intended to purchase beforethe auction.