Wine Fraud Fears Prompt Bordeaux Block

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Oct 30th 2007 at 11:04AM

Worries over potential wine fraud have started to hit the auction houses prompting the pulling of a pricey Bordeaux bottle. An Imperial of 1961 Chateau Petrus was expected to be auctioned off on Saturday by Edward Roberts International in Chicago. The single bottle was expected to bring in around $150,000. The auction house decided to withdraw the bottle from the auction in order to doublecheck the authenticity. The auction house has said they will put the bottle back on the block once all the documentation is in order. As more and more people see wine as an investment with possible big returns the stakes have been raised. Potential lawsuits such as the one filed by billionaire collector Wiliiam Koch may also be behind the increased scrutiny and the need to document the provenance of the investment bottles.

Tags: auction, bordeaux, chateau petrus, imperial, wine, wine fraud