Rodolfo Romero: Guilty or Innocent?
Did he falsify the Napoleon Brandy? Is his new venture in Brandy de Jerez just seeking attention or is he really pursuing an objective? Will he create the perfect brandy or does it already exist, labelled Cardenal Mendoza? These are some of the questions the whole world is asking after hearing his story and those which along with you we will seek to answer.
Ready? Let’s go.
The puzzle that is Rudy
Being Rodolfo Romero things became complicated in relation to his idea of the Perfect Brandy, and it was becoming an obsession with him. Pursuing his objective led to there being two sides to him: that of the unknown who appeared on the scene wanting to revolutionise the world of brandy surprising everybody with his knowledge and ideas, and that of the possible faker who defrauded many thousands of euros with the sale of a bottle of brandy which supposedly belonged to Napoleon.
”To him, the means justified the ends” and that was obvious from his actions.
Everyone agrees that falsifying a bottle of brandy is easy – you buy some “holandas” of good quality and set up a system of criaderas and soleras in a place with optimum climatic conditions for its production. There is something, however, which cannot be bought, acquired or appropriated: time.
The time a brandy spends reposing in American oak butts as it ages is something which cannot be falsified in any way. And maybe that was the ace up Rudy’s sleeve when he set out to falsify the bottle.
In the end, who is going to uncork a bottle of 212-year-old brandy to check that its contents are genuine?
Creating a sufficiently realistic appearance was enough to convince everybody that both the bottle and its contents were genuine.
Adapt and win
Some say that Rodolfo Romero was nicknamed the “Chameleon of Brandy” for his capacity to change character and appear to be completely different people as the situation required.
For many, this points clearly to the fact that he was really a faker.
On the one hand, a person who doesn’t show who or what they are is someone who fears that people might discover who they really are. On the other hand, if he was capable of doing that to himself, it is possible that he is also capable of doing it with the products he wishes to sell for a much higher price than they are worth. The cost of falsifying a bottle of 212-year-old brandy is insignificant compared to the price he could receive for it at auction.
Guilty or innocent
The case of Rudy has still not been officially solved, but let us pose a question:
Why would he go into exile if the bottle had been genuine?
Without a doubt, the story of Rodolfo Romero is one of the most complex enigmas with more questions than answers for the world of brandy, and with every passing minute, the dividing line between reality and legend gets thinner.
Will we ever know the truth? We don’t know. But what we do know is that that bottle of 212-year-old brandy which belonged to Napoleon gleams with the seal of Cardenal Mendoza. And that is something we are extremely proud of.
