The Billionaire's Vinegar: The Mystery of the World's Most Expensive Bottle of Wine

by Benjamin Wallace

book data

442 ratings, 3.44 average rating, 176 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		12%
4		35%
3		39%
2		10%
1		2%

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published

May 13th 2008 by Crown

binding

Hardcover, 319 pages

isbn

0307338770 (isbn13: 9780307338778)

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 Château Lafite ...more

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06/26/08

Tara rated it:

bookshelves: best-of-2008, fromthelibrary, nonfiction, wishlist

Read in July, 2008

recommended to Tara by: NPR

As wines are often described as drinkable, this book is eminently readable. If you liked the 1998 film "The Red Violin", or if you are ever (even occasionally) drawn in by Antiques Roadshow you will love this book. (And if you haven't seen "The Red Violin", you really should)

The epitome of narrative non-fiction, The Billionaire's Vinegar is the tale of a world gone mad with wine lust, historical infatuation and drunk on self-importance. The Billionaire's Vinegar i...more

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07/09/08

John rated it:

I'm more a beer-and-shot guy, so my love of this book took me completely by surprise. The story starts with the auction of a $170,000 bottle of wine --a 1787 Laffite (the right vintage, the right chateaux) that had supposedly been owned by Thomas Jefferson-- and effortlessly takes the reader through a long trail of fascinating subjects: Jefferson's life in France; the science of wine, the bacchanalian proclivities of the ultra-rich (and oft-despicable) wine collectors; mini-histories of the high...more

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1 comment

11/24/08

Karen rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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04/21/08

Anna rated it:

Read in May, 2008

My knowledge of wine is similar to the guy from Sideways who guzzles the glass down and declares "tastes pretty good to me!" For the reader who knows little about wine, this is a good introduction to the high-end world of wine collecting. The first 2/3 of the book is interesting and informative and reads like a good mystery, but the last chapters seem hastily thrown together. The book misses making some important conclusions about the ramifications of the Jefferson bottles on not only ...more

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02/05/09

Bookmarks Magazine added it

Benjamin Wallace's magazine background helps him keep the many narrative threads in The Billionaire's Vinegar tight and engaging. In addition, Wallace exhibits a sharp eye for detail and character: Hardy Rodenstock, in particular,comes across as deliciously deceptive. Exploring what Jefferson's European tour of 1787 must have been like will likely interest even readers without a taste for wine, though connoisseurs will savor the author's descriptions of the clubby (and sometimes comically extrav

...more

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07/01/09

Christopher Rex rated it:

This book proved to me several things I've always believed....one, that nobody should ever take wine too seriously. Two, people can be fooled into believing almost anything. Three, people that take wine too seriously take themselves too seriously and that's the problem. Anyway, a good read about an amazing con, wine collecting and the "inner" workings of elite wine-tasting. Some people just have too much money for their own good. Easy to read and intriguing. It will remind you to...more

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04/12/09

Clayton rated it:

Since I love wine and I love history, a book about wine and history seemed like a smart choice. Boy, was I correct. Benjamin Wallace spent years researching the fascinating world of high priced auction wines, the kind I've only read about, and will never have a chance to taste. A 1900 Margaux, an 1847 a pre-phylloxera (vine destroying insect) Bordeaux, an 1874 Ausone, all of which are featured in this book but don't measure up to the intrigue surrounding the most famous bottle of wine in the ...more

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11/26/08

Michael rated it:

Read in November, 2008

The disappointing think about this book is that the story isn't finished. Litigation is ongoing, and the book ends rather abruptly. Also, the author skips around chronologically fairly liberally, presumably to enhance the narrative flow, but sometimes it feels disjointed or just doesn't make sense. Despite these complaints, this book is an engrossing read. As an amateur wine enthusiast, the subject matter was interesting to me and the character sketches were engaging. It also proved a great...more

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01/13/09

Natalie rated it:

Read in January, 2009

This was a fascinating book about one of the greatest all time wine controversies. The story centered around the discovery of some missing bottles of wine alleged to belong to Thomas Jefferson. The real life characters were enjoyable and angering all at the same time. The book detailed the chronicles of these bottles of wine and offered much detail into the wine industry as a whole. It was actually a bit more detail than I personally cared for as I would have been happy had the author only p...more

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01/12/09

Anna Hanson Bevens rated it:

bookshelves: food-and-drink-nonfiction, library-book, read-in-2009

Read in January, 2009

recommends it for: oenophiles

I am not an oenophile. To be honest, that's why ultimately I gave this book 2 stars.

So why did I bother reading it? Because I was intrigued by the book jacket - that it was "the mystery of the world's most expensive bottle of wine". Only really, it's about 10% mystery and 90% about the merits of a 1830 Tokay vs. a 1870 Lafite in magnum.

The author assumes that the reader has a working knowledge of wines, and since I have none, I was hopelessly lost most of ...more

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12/22/08

Ross rated it:

bookshelves: food-politics

Read in December, 2008

The Billionaire’s Vinegar is about the strange world of super-expensive, old wine. That is, thousands of dollars per bottle. Maybe even tens of thousands. So, what do you know? There is a lot of fake wine. Nobody knows how much, but there seems to be an awful lot. The reasons are clear: wine is hard to authenticate, nobody really knows what an incredibly old wine “should” taste like, and there is considerable variation even by bottle. Anyway, it’s hard to feel sorry for someone who would...more

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05/08/09

Ellen rated it:

Read in June, 2009

This is an interesting account of all of the people surrounding a 1787 bottle of Lafite (supposedly owned by Thomas Jefferson) that was auctioned off for $156,000. It's interesting, but not fascinating, and it's taking me awhile to get through it. Had to take a break and read fast-paced suspense novel by Harlan Coben.

I enjoyed this intriguing peak into the world of rare wines. It did pick up in the second half. I can't imagine having the means to spend thousands of dollars on a singl...more

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12/22/08

Oldesq rated it:

Read in December, 2008

With a frankly journalistic tone Benjamin Wallace describes the high-wire con game that involved as either victim or villian nearly all participants in the old wine market from the 1980s until recently. In an interesting and business-like way Wallace gives the reader a peek into how old wines come into the market without any provenance or real research into their origin. As a result, old-wine buyers, not trusting the sophistication of their own palates, fall victim to a charming trickster when...more

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12/08/08

Sara rated it:

bookshelves: food_and_drink, nonfiction

Read in December, 2008

Very satisfying nonfiction that with wide appeal - non-wine drinkers and non-collectors will still be drawn in by the fascinating depth of the world of old and rare wine. The eclectic and eccentric characters of the fine wine world, from the tasters and their unusual descriptive phrases, to the collectors and their extravagant expenditures continue to keep the story interesting.

Benjamin Wallace does a great job of unfolding the story slowly and exploring various tangents without vee...more

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2 comments

10/17/08

Snicks rated it:

Read in December, 2008

The book immediately captured my attention with the excitment of Lot 337 - a bottle of Thomas Jefferson's wine being sold at live auction. As a history lover, the first half of the book was a thrilling tale of history, connecting Thomas Jefferson to these ancient wines, and making him the Father of Wine in America.

Halfway through the book, disillusionment sets in as the world goes beserk. The true wine connoisseurs are now mixed with history buffs and high dollar symbol collectors. P...more

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08/04/08

Evan rated it:

Read in August, 2008

Wallace spins a true, perhaps somewhat mundane story about a contemporary con artist and the eventual litigation brought against him into an interesting narrative stretching from the late 1700s to today, forging an interesting book that reads quickly and becomes hard to put down if for no other reason than the fairly quick pacing almost demands a quick read.

So it is, in a word, fun.

It's also well researched, meticulous in its portrayals of the key players in an engaging 2...more

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07/24/08

J rated it:

Read in August, 2008

Somewhere around two-thirds of the way through this entertaining account of the controversy surround possible counterfeit antique wines, I began to hope that there’d be a definitive answer. The book seems to fall on the side of very, very strongly suggesting that all the rare old vintage wines produced by the book’s “villain,” Hardy Rodenstock, one time pop band producer turned rare wine dealer, were fakes, but for obvious litigation issues stops just short of outright accusation. I didn...more Somewhere around two-thirds of the way through this entertaining account of the controversy surround possible counterfeit antique wines, I began to hope that there’d be a definitive answer. The book seems to fall on the side of very, very strongly suggesting that all the rare old vintage wines produced by the book’s “villain,” Hardy Rodenstock, one time pop band producer turned rare wine dealer, were fakes, but for obvious litigation issues stops just short of outright accusation. I didn’t want to know the answer because of a curiosity about the truth of the matter. The real reason I wanted an answer was because I wanted all the rich pricks in the book to get owned – and hard.

To back up a bit first, though.

We start with the alleged rare wines. The most notable wines procured by Rodenstock are supposedly from a cache of bottles from one of the homes where Thomas Jefferson lived in France. Widely regarded as America’s first wine fancier of note, Jefferson’s memorabilia and documents depict a man who wished to turn his fellow countrymen away from the brutality of corn liquor and on to the finer vintages of Europe. He also was a staunch advocate of home grown experimentation in wine production. According to Rodenstock, a wrecking crew breaking through a plaster wall in a home scheduled for demolition found the wines, walled up to prevent their theft by revolutionary peasants after Jefferson’s departure back to America.

Wallace goes into great detail cataloguing the aspects of the bottle, the fine engraving of “Th. J” on each bottle, an inscription greatly contested by Monticello historians, the antiquity of the cork and the wax seal around it, and the provenance of the wine. Rodenstock, in his bid for authenticity, enlists the help of Michael Broadbent, in-house wine expert for Christie’s auction house whose seal of approval on the mystery bottles ignites bidding wars and much speculation. The first bottle to go up for auction is eventually snagged by Christopher “Kip” Forbes for $157,000. (Subsequently, this idiotic family with their mania for collecting put the bottle up for display in a lighted glass case where the heat ruined whatever was inside the bottle and accelerated the rot in the cork, leading to it falling into the bottle where it floated for however many hours it took for someone to notice.)

Further bottles from this supposed cache were purchased by the American editor of Wine Spectator magazine, by a mysterious man from the Middle East rumored to be a frontman for Dodi Al-Fayed, and by tycoon Bill Koch whose eventual lawsuit against Rodenstock brought the entire matter to a head. In the intervening years between Forbes’ purchase and Koch’s lawsuit, Rodenstock came under increasing suspicion for his facility with finding incredibly rare fine vintages and their amazing drinkability. He regularly “discovered” long lost stashes laden with dramatic historical value, though his finds often were of bottle types which disputed as ever having been produced, such as imperial magnums of certain years when vintner records reveal no such bottles.

Wallace tells the story in well-spaced intervals, pausing for chapters to detail Jefferson’s trip through France, the history of the vintners most usually faked, the debate between the pre and post-phylloxera years, and about the growing market of wines in England and America. It is this latter side note that leads to Koch’s interest in wines and the book’s most aggravating personalities.

Not exactly wine snobs, these mostly American collectors (joined by similar types from around the world) prove to be a trial to endure reading about. Hosting lavish tasting parties of “verticals,” that is, parties featuring one vintage over several decades and “horizontals” a single year’s great wines from various vintners, these wine collectors seem less interested in taste and flavor and enjoyment than impressing each other with the rareness of their cellars. The love of wine rapidly morphs into dick-measuring contests whose appeal is lost on those of us who aren’t involved. Wallace lovingly portrays their orgiastic excesses to such a degree that my inner Marxist was sliding well into Trotskyite bloodlust just to hear of their fancy balls.

That the book’s late middle section becomes dominated by these assholes is a fatal flaw in the story, but nonetheless an important one, because it is through Rodenstock’s desire to impress at these gatherings of wealthy experts (the better to tempt them to buy his suspect wares) that his eventual exposure as a likely fraud is made possible. It is through such events that Rodenstock tangles with Koch, a litigious bastard if ever there were one.

To get to the bottom of the matter, Kohc hired a team made up of a retired FBI agent and his private investigators, scientists versed in the art of chemical analyses based upon radioactive isotopes, and David Molyneux-Berry, the former head of Christie’s rival auction house, Sotheby’s wine department. Koch has filed suit in several jurisdictions against Rodenstock, cases that have yet to be decided.

In this sense, the book feels incomplete, as if the story was rushed out in anticipation of something. We end without any definitive proof that Rodenstock was completely faking these wines and without any on-record resolution to the court cases. The overwhelming bulk of the circumstantial is damning enough in my mind, but the book stops just centimeters shy of making such a claim.

This is dissatisfying for obvious reasons, but more so the book leaves me with a sense of unalloyed frustration. While I relish con artists who practice the short and long-term grift and live on their wits, Rodenstock is an unappealing faker without much in the way of charisma as he’s portrayed by Wallace. To some degree, this must be an authorial flaw, as such high stakes and such long-lived forgery schemes can’t survive solely based on the marks’ gullibility. The conman must have a charm that is obvious and compelling. As painted by Wallace, Rodenstock lacks this fundamental virtue. His victims, such as extravagant prick Bill Koch, are likewise repulsive creatures full of money and unattractive personal qualities. Shed a tear please for the Forbes family if you can.

With unpleasant players on both sides of the fence, Wallace’s book lacks a compelling figure for reader sympathy save for Michael Broadbent. A stronger focus on Christie’s wine expert and how damaged his reputation emerged from the scandal might have carried the day, but caught up in the fancy dress balls of the upper class wine fetishists, Wallace loses sight of his ace in the hole. Sidelined as a bit player for the book’s second half, Broadbent as figure of semi-tragedy could have added a pleasing top note of pathos to the work. As it is, the book is good enough for quaffing, but lacks what all wine makers hope for, cellar appeal. (less)

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07/11/08

Library Journal magazine rated it:

bookshelves: currently-reading

Cookery Editor Ann Burns points out that Benjamin Wallace has been chosen for Barnes & Nobles' "Discover Great New Writers" program:

In 1985 in London, the Forbes publishing family paid more than $150,000 for a nearly 200-year-old bottle of Château Lafite Bordeaux rumored to have once been owned by Thomas Jefferson. The bottle was part of a collection unearthed by German wine entrepreneur Hardy Rodenstock. At first only a few doubted the authenticity of the wine, but over t...more

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06/27/08

katie rated it:

bookshelves: biography, food-and-drink

Read in July, 2008

Though I'm not mystified as to how this landed on the NYT bestsellers list, I am slightly puzzled by the fact that it remains a bestseller (note: I wrote this review early to mid July). In defense of the former statement, and to explain what I really mean, the basis of this book is fascinating -- apparently to enough people to sell thousands of copies all at once. I, too, thought "the Mystery of the World's Most Expensive Bottle of Wine" would be compelling through and through. Howe...more

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06/13/08

Jeffrey rated it:

bookshelves: current-events

Read in June, 2008

Is there anything better in life than a great wine and friends in which to share? Wine is more than just an adult beverage – a way of life and love. Books, movies and magazines are made about the beverage. Tasting groups, newsletters and collectors live and dream wine. So it is no surprise that the very best of the wine made is a highly sought after commodity. There are wine auctions held at the very best houses. Rare bottles can command a King’s Ransom and Mr. Wallace has written a book abo...more Is there anything better in life than a great wine and friends in which to share? Wine is more than just an adult beverage – a way of life and love. Books, movies and magazines are made about the beverage. Tasting groups, newsletters and collectors live and dream wine. So it is no surprise that the very best of the wine made is a highly sought after commodity. There are wine auctions held at the very best houses. Rare bottles can command a King’s Ransom and Mr. Wallace has written a book about the bottle that held the record for highest bid at auction.

The Billionaire’s Vinegar is a most entertaining book. Never before has the wine collecting world come to life as it does on the pages of this true life mystery. The book is the tale of a supposed Thomas Jefferson cache of wine found somewhere in Paris, walled up and protected since the late 1780’s. Wallace covers the story like an investigative reporter, recounting the various stories and issues that have arisen from the find. A mystery unfolds about whether this cache and other surprising finds are truly the real thing, or could they be complex hoaxes that fooled the wine collecting public?

The rich detail of the wine world outside of the mystery really adds a lot to the story, as does the history of Thomas Jefferson’s own wine love and his willingness to spread the wine gospel as a new and devoted convert. The book covers many of the new areas of wine in a very detail and entertaining way, such as modern corking techniques, the formation of the Riedel wine glasses and the new owners and histories of the most famous first and second growth vineyards. The book was hard to put down.

As the story progresses, I found my self wanting to join a wine group to taste the wines discussed in detail. The vertical tasting of vintages seems like a real way to sample a fine line. The celebration of wine in the midst of scandal cannot be stated enough. The wine world may have their scoundrels, but in the end it is a tasty fruit. This book will not disappoint.(less)

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