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Loading... The Billionaire's Vinegar: The Mystery of the World's Most Expensive…by Benjamin Wallace
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. This is a non-fiction book about the world of rare and old wines. Basically, it focuses on one particular bottle, a 1787 bottle of Lafite supposedly owned by Thomas Jefferson. It was auctioned by Christie's for $156,000 to the Forbes family. The book then delves into the society of old-wine drinkers and the authenticity of the wines. There is no definite conclusion on how to verify authenticity. The author makes his opinion on the authenticity of the bottle in question fairly clear. As a wine lover this was a really interesting book to read. It's also an interesting look at the spending habits of the extremely rich. There is a lot of information about the most famous French vineyards and about the history of Thomas Jefferson's love of wine. Very enjoyable. (  )japaul22 | Feb 25, 2009 |   This is an interesting investigation into the phenomenon of a number of very old wine being discovered after most experts and wine collectors assumed the supply of 18th century wine was exhausted. The billionaire of the title is Bill Koch, of the Koch company, the largest privately held American corporation. Unfortunately, Koch was a purchaser of this wine and as its provenance became suspect, Koch mounted an expensive investigation into whether the wine was counterfeit. The book spans from the early 90's until 2005 and includes a number of colorful characters in Germany, UK, France, America and more, from places like Christie's, wine distributors, and chateux owners. One of the reasons this wine became $100,000+ per bottle is that it was purportedly owned by Thomas Jefferson. I found the book essentially an unsolved-crime story, well written. It went too far into the history of Thomas Jefferson for no reason, but overall stayed focused and tight. I stayed interested throughout and in parts could not put it down, which is more meaningful considering I don't drink and don't know much about wine. (  )shawnd | Dec 11, 2008 | I stopped reading it after page 32; now this is huge for me because I NEVER quit on a book, but this one was just putting me to sleep. This is definitely a book for a wine freak or for someone who is really (and I mean REALLY) into finding out every little and minuscule detail about wine. I was expecting something totally different and I was really disappointed. With so many books out there to read, I decided to set this one back on the shelf and maybe picking it up later in my life (really later). (  )AleAleta | Oct 30, 2008 | Fun, learned a lot about wine, particularly old wine. And collecting old wine. And faking old wine. Good mystery about bottles of wine purportedly from the cellars of Thomas Jefferson. Many many years to unravel this mystery. Wine people are pretty snotty not to consider they are fallible in their sense of old wine. Interesting chemistry, interesting ways to evaluate using science. (  )jopearson56 | Oct 27, 2008 | I don't know what it is, but I love books about wine. I honestly can't explain it, but the mix of history, personalities and the fruit of the vine is always something I can get into. And the first third of the book did not disappoint! It was fantastic! But then... it lost it's zeal. The story starts off with some huge auctions for some bottles of wine, unearthed in a forgotten cellar and reportedly to have been owned by Thomas Jefferson when he was assigned to work in Paris. The story picks up as these fantastic faces of the global wine trade get involved and money is flung about in record setting auctions. All of it is made that much sweeter by the fact that all of this really happened. Then you get to the middle of the book where bottles are shown off at this party and that party, so-and-so said this or that, etc. And this goes on for some time. It honestly feels like some hum drum listing of witness testimonies as the world tries to figure out the story about all of these fantastic finds. And then the last third of the story is only a few pages as things are hashed out and *bam* it's over. No real final explanations or backstory... just "here's what happened. Buh-bye." Up until this part it's read like a book, but here it feels like a newspaper article just stating the facts. I do recommend this book to anyone who enjoys wine. It's a great conversation story. Lots of names we've all heard and a great mystery to boot. ( )trav | Oct 14, 2008 | 0.056 seconds to build listing
Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0307338770, Hardcover)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 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. (retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:02 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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