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The Billionaire's Vinegar: The Mystery of the World's Most Expensive Bottle of Wine | 
| Author: Benjamin Wallace
Publisher: Crown
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $12.94
You Save: $12.01 (48%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  25 reviews
Sales Rank: 247
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.3
ISBN: 0307338770
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.2223
EAN: 9780307338778
ASIN: 0307338770
Publication Date: May 13, 2008
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Product Description
It was the most expensive bottle of wine ever sold.
In 1985, at a heated auction by Christie’s of London, a 1787 bottle of Chateau Lafite Bordeaux—one of a cache of bottles unearthed in a bricked-up Paris cellar and supposedly owned by Thomas Jefferson—went for $156,000 to a member of the Forbes family. The discoverer of the bottle was pop-band manager turned wine collector Hardy Rodenstock, who had a knack for finding extremely old and exquisite wines. But rumors about the bottle soon arose. Why wouldn’t Rodenstock reveal the exact location where it had been found? Was it part of a smuggled Nazi hoard? Or did his reticence conceal an even darker secret?
It would take more than two decades for those questions to be answered and involve a gallery of intriguing players—among them Michael Broadbent, the bicycle-riding British auctioneer who speaks of wines as if they are women and staked his reputation on the record-setting sale; Serena Sutcliffe, Broadbent’s elegant archrival, whose palate is covered by a hefty insurance policy; and Bill Koch, the extravagant Florida tycoon bent on exposing the truth about Rodenstock.
Pursuing the story from Monticello to London to Zurich to Munich and beyond, Benjamin Wallace also offers a mesmerizing history of wine, complete with vivid accounts of subterranean European laboratories where old vintages are dated and of Jefferson’s colorful, wine-soaked days in France, where he literally drank up the culture.
Suspenseful, witty, and thrillingly strange, The Billionaire’s Vinegar is the vintage tale of what could be the most elaborate con since the Hitler diaries. It is also the debut of an exceptionally powerful new voice in narrative non-fiction.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 20 more reviews...
Shame on the "experts" July 24, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
An excellent book which traces the history of the very rare wine market and explains how its excesses led to the Rodenstock-Koch-Broadbent fiasco. The author deftly explores both the business issues and the psychology of the rare wine world, and shows little mercy for the "experts" who were taken in by Rodenstock, either because of cupidity or stupidity.
 a great tipple July 23, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a gripping read. Hard some times to think its non fiction given the complexity and deviousness of the players
We need a new TV series: CSI Bordeaux July 14, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
As a wine writer for more than 30 years who knows some of the players mentioned in the book, I enjoyed the way Benjamin Wallace cleverly wove together history, the world of wine and France in particular and the hoax so many bought into. Not only does he chronicle an incredible array of details into understandable context with dexterity, he weaves in a steady thread of humor (Harry Waugh, the English wine merchant and writer, was once asked how often he confused Bordeaux with Burgundy. "Not since lunch," he replied."). The confusion and complicity of some of the world's best-known wine critics and auctioneers comes to light as the hoax unfolds. Some reputations are ruined because of seeming complicity.
One parallel that might have been pursued further: the brilliance of Bill Koch, the billionaire who exposed the fraud, and Thomas Jefferson, whose name was attached to the most expensive bottle of wine ever sold. Both were meticulous in their work and record-keeping. The fact that no records existed at Monticello of the so-called Jefferson bottles should have put the Rodenstock collection into question immediately. Then, with carbon dating and other modern technology, the Koch team exposed the fraud. A tale well told.
 Updated information is needed July 14, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
An interesting, but slow moving book, The Billionaire's Vinegar jumps around frequently between the life of Thomas Jefferson, and the modern day auction of the wine bottle labeled 1787. I would have liked to have read more about Thomas Jefferson, because that part was more interesting then the associated neurotic wine collecting characters. The book fails to say, if the bottle is really fake, because it was published too early. I suggest newer editions be updated. The last paragraph poignantly goes back to Thomas Jefferson. Thomas Jefferson was reduced to drinking cheaper wines in his declining years, but does not explain the reason behind his financial hardship.
A little disappointed July 9, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I was very interested when I had the sample sent to my Kindle. I read the sample and was intrigued. The story seemed to drift back and forth. It was somewhat confusing at times. I was disappointed by the ending of the story. I feel as though the author was confused himself with his telling of the events that took place. I had to force myself to continue reading until I finished.
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