Koch case against Christie's dropped

A US court has dismissed a lawsuit filed by collector William Koch against Christies. Koch claimed that Christies knowingly sold him a bottle of counterfeit 1870 Lafite. The judge ruled that Koch knew the bottle was counterfeit before he bought it but rejected his argument that he bought the bottle in order to prove it was counterfeit.

Koch argued that Christies have inspected so many wine cellars and examined so many bottles of wine that they now know how to identify counterfeit wine but that they turn a blind eye to suspected wine fraud.

Koch has been on a mission to reform the wine auction industry and make it more transparent. He has been involved in a number of different lawsuits against individuals such as wine collector Hardy Rodenstock, Christies, Zachys and the Chicago Wine Company. Many of the cases involve the now notorious Jefferson Bottles - bottle of Lafite and other fine Bordeaux supposedly belonging to Thomas Jefferson.