Sour Grapes

Wine auctions are growing in America and the prices are rising. A young man appears. Rudy Kurniawan becomes known for his palate; he tastes a glass and names the year and the vineyard. His collection is extraordinary. Records are broken at auction. Then a producer looks at a list and sees a problem: one of the bottles sold was never made that year. Laurent Ponsot gets on a plane. Another collector has his own cellar examined. What is in Rudy's house comes out. Reuben Atlas directs with Jerry Rothwell. Laurent Ponsot, journalists, prosecutors and collectors speak in it. It is an American and British production. The documentary rests on a real case; Kurniawan was tried in America for wine fraud and convicted. The matter it treats is expertise itself; nobody can tell a bottle is false by tasting it and the question is settled by the label. The documentary criticises the collectors' world too; what sets the price is not the drink but who says what to whom. The narrative shows in detail how the forgery was done and the method turns out to be simple. The film also looks into where Kurniawan came from, and the section about his family is its most uncertain part. The narrative builds the case like a detective story and sets its pace accordingly. The documentary does not present the victims as entirely innocent. Its limit is depth; the narrative tells the story but does not go far into the market itself. Who it is for: viewers who like documentaries about fraud and are curious about wine. Who it is not for: the subject is narrow, it repeats, and the ending is legal.