Sour GrapesJerry Rothwell & Reuben Atlas

How to fake an old and expensive Bordeaux wine? Mix a few wines together, put a cork in the bottle, put the correct label on it and done! Unfortunately it is not that simple. Or is it? Rudy Kurniawan managed to get the job done several times. For years he managed to deceive the wine industry. Sour Grapes tells the exciting story of the largest wine fraud of all time - at least the largest one revealed up to now... Beware of a hangover!

How did con man Rudy Kurniawan betray wine merchants and collectors with fake wines during all these years? Kurniawan is infamous for being the first wine fraud ever to be caught in the US, falsifying award-winning quality wines from acknowledged wineries. With the help of a chemist he mixed wines until their taste resembled the flavour of an old, very expensive Bordeaux. And he succeeded, in fact he triumphed. Even Bill Koch spent up to 2.1 million dollar for 200 bottles of Rudy's wine. This wine scamming game continued until 2012, when Kurniawan's sour deception was exposed.
 
Directors Jerry Rothwell and Reuben Atlas follow the detectives who finally unmasked Rudy Kurniawan - now firmly locked up behind bars. The cork of his amazing fraud popped when wine collector Bill Koch and winemaker Laurent Ponsot questioned the authenticity of Kurniawan's rare wines. Sour Grapes shows the bitter side of the wine industry: a world characterized not only by good taste, but also by the unreal sum of money that naive wine lovers are willing to spend because of status rather than taste. Sour Grapes can thus be seen as a modern version of the fable The Emperor's New Clothes
 
After the screening of March 24th follows the DOCVILLE² activity: Wine Tasting
Tickets for film + wine tasting can be bought here.



Vertoond op editie(s) 2017
Screened at edition(s) 2017

Info

Directed by Jerry Rothwell & Reuben Atlas
UK
85 min.
English
No subtitles

Programme

Food for thought*

credits
Director

Jerry Rothwell & Reuben Atlas

Producer

Alison Morrow, Catherine Siméon

Production company

Faites Un Voeu, Met Film Production

Cinematography

Simon Fanthorpe

Editing

James Scott

Contact info
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(en screener)
(beschikbaar vanaf 20.03)