Anson on Thursday: Vandalism, fraud and a rare Bordeaux wine

Was a €3000 Graves wine from historic vines always too good to be true? Jane Anson scratches beneath the surface of a case involving the vandalism of rare old vines and a subsequent fraud investigation.

It was already a head-scratcher of a story, even before the news last November that rare vines owned by winery Liber Pater had been destroyed by vandals, and then the bombshell follow-up in January that owner Loïc Pasquet had been found guilty of fraud by a Bordeaux tribunal for a rather confusing assortment of things ranging from not declaring his chaptilisation levels to submitting forged receipts for close to €600,000 in promotional grants.

But before all of this came the idea of a newly-created wine (first vintage 2006) from the humble Graves appellation that sells for upwards of €3000 per bottle. This week, Morrell & Company at Rockefeller Plaza in New York had the 2009 listed for US$4,000, with three bottles in stock (although none sold recently according to the salesman I spoke with). There are margins added along the way, and the wine leaves the château for less than that of course.

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