The Longform Guide to Wine

The rare-wine world gets conned.

?The high-end-wine community was bewitched by its newest mystery man. Kurniawan wore clothing that was L.A.-hip and noticeably pricey: selvage jeans, custom Herm?s suits, Patek Philippe watches, Chrome Hearts glasses, crocodile boots. He?d flap open his jacket to reveal a silk lining printed with a repeating cursive ?Rudy,? or tease someone for having merely a Platinum Amex compared with his own Centurion card. Occasionally, he?d have a woman on his arm, such as a hostess from one of the restaurants he patronized, or be accompanied by a brother visiting from Asia, but usually he arrived alone. He was an hour late to everything, which struck some as a trust-fund slacker?s nonchalance and others as arrogance. And he disclosed only the wispiest details of his past. He?d moved from Indonesia to the U.S. to attend Cal State Northridge on a golf scholarship, he told one friend, then dropped out and opened a golf store. His ethnic-Chinese family owned a major Asian beer distributorship in Indonesia, he would say, and paid him a hefty monthly allowance to stay out of their hair. The beer was Guinness. No, it was Heineken. He got $1 million a month. No, $2 million. Though Wasserman invited Kurniawan to his house several times, Kurniawan always had an excuse and never reciprocated. Wasserman chalked it up to ?OCD issues, or a certain amount of intimacy he didn?t want to have.?

?Among a privileged set, though, Kurniawan?s quirks and r?sum? gaps were of much less interest than his generosity.?

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=5ac8ac789f71595ff472584362f3f08a

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