Best wine collecting books according to redditors

For the curious:

The most recent round of fun began at the beginning of February when Spectrum Wine Auctions announced a sale on Feb. 8th in London including a collection of old and rare wines featuring lots of Burgundy and Bordeaux which appeared to have likely originated from the collection of Rudy Kurniawan. Spectrum denied these allegations but confirmed the lots had been consigned by an Antonio Castanos, who had consigned wines on behalf of Rudy in the past, including several auctions where wines were either returned because of authenticity issues, or withdrawn before bidding on request of the Domaines. A well known Burgundy collector expressed his concerns on WineBerserkers.com on February 4th, including an incredible list of suspicious lots drawn directly from the Spectrum catalogue, for those who wish to follow along. Despite these accusations, Spectrum repeated that the wines did not originate from Rudy, and they had all been vetted suitably and proceded with the auction. An insider at Spectrum later confirmed that some wines did come from Rudy and before the auction went live, around 20 lots were pulled.

This story became a lot more interesting recently because Mr. Kurniawan was historically cast as a millionaire playboy and collector of fine wines who was among those burned by Meinhard Gorke (AKA Hardy Rodenstock), made infamous by his portrayal in the excellent book The Billionaire's Vinegar. It was widely assumed that Mr. Kurniawan was quietly trying to divest himself of all the faked wines in his collection by slowly consigning them to various auction houses. The new FBI criminal complaint filed against him suggests otherwise. Aside from having materials consistent with forging wines, Mr. Kurniawan appears to be in substantial debt along with living illegally in the United States, following a deportation order a decade ago. A few notes from the indictment:

>1. The arrest was based on the FBI agent's affidavit, NOT an indictment. I'm not sure, but I think that suggests the authorities felt they had to move quickly and didn't have time to empanel a grand jury and subpoena witnesses.
2. The core of the case is that he was in debt to the tune of $13 million+ to, apparently, Acker ("New York Auction House"), a California collector (?) and a N.Y. finance company and had pledged the same wine and art works twice and lied about his liabilities. The faking of the wine is really of incidental to those charges.
3. He borrowed $8.5 million from the "NY Auction House" and its customers (who were those?) in 2007 alone and another $1.2 million in 2008. There were more loans and he paid off some, but the auction house has a $10.4 million judgment against him.
4. He was into a N.Y. finance company for $3 million, secured by art.
5. He tried to sell wine he had pledged to the N.Y. auction house and the California collector through "International Auction House" in 2009.
6. Rudy had the sommelier at a N.Y. restaurant where hosted big tastings FedEx him the empty bottles - roughly 13 "packages" (cases?) in 2005 and 2006. The sommelier destroyed empty trophy bottles starting in 2007
7. Ponsot was interviewed.
8. The FBI agent read wine boards and relies on the discrepancies pointed out here by Don (aka "DRC Collector").
9. Rudy had an intermediary act as the consignor for the Spectrum/Vanquish auction because, he said, he could no longer sell in his own name.
10. In an e-mail Feb. 8 the CEO of the N.Y. Auction house told Rudy he'd heard he was selling wine at auction in London and demanded a response, saying Rudy couldn't consign wine without the N.Y. house's written consent because he owed them money.
11. The FBI got a search warrant for Rudy's e-mails.

I bet the story gets even more interesting as we find out more.

You may find the book Billionaire's Vinegar interesting.

I just finished reading The Billionaire's Vinegar and I'm still shocked about the apparent prevalence of counterfeit vintage wine. Apparently more 1982 Latour (or Lafite, can't remember which) is poured in Las Vegas yearly than what was produced at the Chateau in '82.

These will keep you busy (and, I hope, enlightened) for a while:

The Science of Wine: Extremely useful for explaining such phenomena as corked wines, volatile acidity, "red wine gives me headaches," etc.

The Wines of Burgundy.

Bordeaux

Vino Italiano

World Encyclopedia of Champagne and Sparkling Wine

James Halliday's Wine Atlas of Australia

John Platter's South African Wine Guide

Wines of South America Monty Waldin is a bit eccentric for my tastes, but he knows what he's talking about.

The Wines of Spain This is due for revision (last one was 2006), but still excellent.

I have yet to find a satisfactory all-around book on German wines. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

perhaps a tad dated, but very good