Uncorking Wine Fraud With Spectroscopy

Few consumers had even heard of wine fraud before 2014, when Rudy Kruniawan was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison for mail and wire fraud, having scammed Los Angeles wine collectors with more than $30 million of fake vintages. The trial resulted in an award-winning Netflix documentary, Sour Grapes, in 2016, and shone a spotlight on a problem dating back to the ancient Romans, who enacted laws against adulterated wine (fraudsters then added toxic lead acetate to sweeten wines).  …