Charlie Trotter is being sued for selling fake $42K bottles of wine
Two New York wine collectors sued Chicago chef Charlie Trotter in 2013, claiming $46,000 bottles of 1945 Burgundy were counterfeit.
Editor's note: Charlie Trotter died on November 5, 2013, at age 54. A federal judge dismissed this lawsuit in 2015. The piece below is archived as reported in June 2013.
One of Chicago's most famous restaurants, Charlie Trotter's, closed in 2012 after 25 years — the chef said he wanted to go back to school to study philosophy.
He may have found a different reason to need legal knowledge. Two New York wine collectors, Bekim and Ilir Frrokaj, are suing him, claiming bottles of wine sold to them for $46,000 were fake.
The lawsuit accuses Trotter and his former restaurant of violating federal and state consumer laws, and seeks $75,000 in damages. The bottles at issue were two magnums of 1945 Domaine de la Romanee-Conti Burgundy. Efforts to resolve the dispute without going to court proved unsuccessful, the plaintiffs' lawyer said.
A sobering coda for one of Chicago's greatest chefs — whose restaurant closed on its own terms, only for his name to end up in court anyway.
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