Christie’s pulls DRC from auction amid fears of fakery

Christie’s has withdrawn a magnum of DRC from a New York auction scheduled to take place tomorrow after doubts were raised about the wine’s authenticity.

A bottle of 1962 La Tâche without the circumflex over the “A” – an addition that came in the 1970s

According to the Wine Spectator, questions have been raised about the provenance of the wine both by collectors and Domaine de la Romanée-Conti.

The move indicates that it is the collectors rather than the auction houses that are self-policing auctions, despite the proliferation of fake wines on the market.

The bottle in question is a magnum of DRC La Tâche 1962, which carries a sales estimate of US$18,000-24,000, in addition to a buyer’s premium of 22%.

The magnum was sold by Christie’s to an American collector at an auction in New York in December 2010, and was consequently consigned for sale by the same buyer last autumn.

In the run up to the auction, Christie’s send photographs of the labels to DRC for review.

Los Angeles lawyer and Burgundy collector Don Cornwell believes the magnum bears several inauthentic details and shows similarities to magnums of La Tâche 1962 sold by Rudy Kurniawan before he was arrested for alleged wine fraud.

Writing on the WineBerserkers.com, Cornwell questioned the circumflex over the A” in “Tâche”, which was not typical on DRC labels before the 1970s.

DRC co-owner and co-director Aubert de Villaine admitted to the Wine Spectator that he had concerns about the bottle: “The capsule is obviously not original,” he said.

“It is impossible for me to say if the bottle contains authentic La Tâche 1962 or not, but faced with doubts, I believe that we would not authenticate it,” he added.

“We have opted to take the additional step of sending the bottle off for an in-person review by third party experts,” a Christie’s spokesperson told db in response to the news.

“The bottle has been withdrawn from sale to allow that research process to continue,” the spokesperson added.

La Tâche also made the headlines this March, when a Methuselah of the 1971 vintage was removed from a Christie’s auction in Hong Kong after the wine’s authenticity was questioned.

The bottle belonged to Henry Tang, Hong Kong’s former chief secretary, who denied the allegations, dubbing them “totally unsubstantiated and false.”

However, Christie’s decided to remove the bottle from sale as a precautionary measure.