The Current

Sour Grapes documentary uncorks high-end world of fine wine fraud

The biggest wine fraud in history is the subject of a new documentary, called Sour Grapes. It's a story about the astronomically wealthy, an obsession with fine wines worth tens-of-thousands of dollars and the con man who duped them all.
Sour Grapes documentary pulls back curtain on one of the biggest wine frauds in history. (Sour Grapes Film)

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Wine aficionados are beholden - if not intoxicated - by a vintage bottle of grape juice.

For some, it's beyond a hobby - it's an obsession.

Pair that passion with a sizable bank account and you can gain access into the rarefied world of the fine wine collector.  

It's a world that a new documentary, Sour Grapes, reveals with a roster of fascinating characters, including a con man, Rudy Kurniawan — rumoured to be a wine savant  — mastering the  biggest wine fraud in history. He sold millions of dollars worth of wine to an elite clientele in New York and Los Angeles — until suspicions arose that something was "off."

Sour Grapes directors Jerry Rothwell and Reuben Atlas spill the secrets of the astronomically wealthy and their obsession with collecting fine wines with The Current's Anna Maria Tremonti.

Sour Grapes is screening  at the Hot Docs film festival in Toronto.

How much would you spend on a bottle of wine? (Sour Grapes film)

This segment was produced by The Current's Shannon Higgins and Sarah Grant.