Above: a friend at a major wine auction house once asked me to help out with the authentication of a lot purportedly from one of Italy’s most exclusive producers. In the end, she established the wine’s authenticity by verifying that the corks were branded and not printed (branded with an iron as opposed to printed with ink). The winery began using printed corks after the vintage in question.

Reflections on the affaire Kurniawan inspired by Mike Steinberger’s excellent post for WineSearcher.com, “Rudy, Fraud, and Wine Snobs” (my post today for the Boulder Wine Merchant).

Thanks for reading and buon weekend.