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The rivetingly strange story of the world's most expensive bottle of wine, and the even stranger characters whose lives have intersected with it.The New York Times bestseller, updated with a new epilogue, that tells the true story of a 1787 Château Lafite Bordeaux—supposedly owned by Thomas Jefferson—that sold for $156,000 at auction and of the eccentrics whose lives intersected with it. Was it truly entombed in a Paris cellar for two hundred years? Or did it come from a secret Nazi bunker? Or from the moldy basement of a devilishly brilliant con artist? As Benjamin Wallace unravels the mystery, we meet a gallery of intriguing players—from the bicycle-riding British auctioneer who speaks of wines as if they are women to the obsessive wine collector who discovered the bottle. Suspenseful and thrillingly strange, this is the vintage tale of what could be the most elaborate con since the Hitler diaries. “Part detective story, part wine history, this is one juicy tale, even for those with no interest in the fruit of the vine. . . . As delicious as a true vintage Lafite.” —BusinessWeek
OK: so imagine that off Greece some amphorae are discovered in a 2,000 year old wreck. They are inscribed "Falernian" together with initials that could be those of the poet Horace. The discoverer is reticent about which divers made the find and where the wreck was located. He puts them up for auction at a most respectable British house. How much would you pay for one of these if you had apparently had more money than Croesus? Would you drink the stuff? Display it? How could you or anyone now living tell whether this liquid still tasted as the legendary Falernian should? What if---just what if---more amphorae surfaced? Lots more. How could you or even the experts assure this was the real deal or if it was faked?"The Billionaire's Vinegar" tells of the ingenious "discoverer" (Hardy Rodenstock)of a cache of fine label wines from the time of Thomas Jefferson, said to have been uncovered when a wall of an old cellar in Paris is breached. The bottles are labeled not only with the noble vintners (Margaux, Lafite Yquem) but also with the initials Th.J. engraved on the bottles.The story wraps itself around a legendary auctioneer (bicycle-riding Michael Broadbent of Christie's), an old wine hunter whose nose supposedly has sniffed and whose palate tasted more old wines than anyone else's. We meet the world of uber uber uber rich collectors whose cellars may include 30,000 bottles or more; the purveyors who may invite these luscious lucrative clients to elite vertical tastings the wines of which can go back 150 years or more. We learn charmingly about a tappet hen from the 1830s and more sinisterly about the growing suspicion that the curse of the Greeks and Romans-----falsifying wines---may have struck again and this time with prices stratospherically above (say $165,000 for a Th.J. bottle) what most of us might buy for a convivial evening.I recently bought my fourth copy of "The Billionaire's Vinegar" 'cause I keep giving it to buddies together with a bottle of quite drinkable wine in the $15 range. A wonderful read, every chapter vividly written, well-researched, and overflowing with what may be intriguing, quirky insights into the wine-buying lives of the wealthy, avaracious, and acquisitive----as well as the honor given to fine wines.One thinks of the lovely poem (See Odes and Epodes) in which Horace invites Maecenus to his farm where he will serve not the Chian or Falernian but Sabine wine, sealed by Horace's own hands and laid down quite a few counselships ago. After reading "The Billionaire's Vinegar," we now know by that, Horace probably means "guaranteed unadulterated."There is not a dull page in this book, even on re-readings, and even the more technical, science-y parts can be page-turners if your heart warms to off-beat stories, well-researched and well-told.A caution: If, however, reading about multi-billionaires getting taken interests you about as much as latest teen-star gossip or enrages you to march on Wall Street, I can not recommend this book.Otherwise, BIBENDUM!
