| The Billionaire's Vinegar: The Mystery of the World's Most Expensive Bottle of Wine |  | Author: Benjamin Wallace
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $10.17
You Save: $4.78 (32%)
Rating:  43 reviews
Sales Rank: 258754
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
ISBN: 0307338789
Dewey Decimal Number: 900
EAN: 9780307338785
ASIN: 0307338789
Publication Date: April 14, 2009 (In 133 Days)
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Not yet published
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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.
From the Hardcover edition.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 38 more reviews...
 Interesting true story told as a thriller November 24, 2008
This is a good read.
I prefered the first half which was very catching and thrilling. I think the author really did a good job telling these amazing facts in this exciting manner.
The second half was a little too factual and repetitive. I guess the beginning was too good with the surprise effect ( I didnt know the story) so it would have been hard to hold it on.
I disagree with the comments regarding the timing of the release. The important is not to know who is right or wrong regarding the Jefferson bottle. I think the whole point of the book is actually to let the doubt stands. Its better that way to make the reader thinks for himself.
Wine Sleuthing November 1, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Very well researched, well structured and reads like a detective story. Interest for Brits, Europeans and Americans as the story and the characters shuttle back and forth. Many gurus of the wine world play a part and the reader lives the narrative, its twists, turns and surprises, plus some wry humour. After much detailed case work, the story ends rather abruptly and readers will be curious to know what happened to the key players next. A post script to the second edition, perhaps?
Interesting peek inside the world of rare wines October 14, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book provides a great look inside the very high end of wine collecting - the people, the history and of course the wines. The author offers up a fascinating portrait of the people whose trade or avocation is the finding, selling and drinking of 100+ year old fine wines; and in the process it tells a riveting tale of intrigue and fakery. The first 80% of this book is absolutely five-star material, but the last 20% kinda falls apart. Not the author's fault that there wasn't a satisfying denouement to the tale, but I can't help but think it might have been structured better to deliver a more satisfying ending.
Poor vintage October 14, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
The true conclusion of this book has yet to be resolved. So like other reviewers I was disappointed at the end of the Billionaires Vinegar when nothing is concluded. The author leaves the reader hanging with an incomplete resolution and a vague summary of where justice does or does not prevail.
A great deal of this book is filled with irrelevant names of obscure wines and people. It was difficult to remember these names let alone figure out how they fit in to the overall scheme of things.
More pages should have been devoted to describing how the price and quality of wines are determined. The author gives the impression that only people with more money than taste purchase expensive wines.
Overall, The Billionaires Vinegar and the mystery of the worlds most expensive wine, is still a mystery.
A Page Turner October 9, 2008
I love history, antiques and wine. This book was the trifecta as far as I am concerned. It was a fascinating journey through the auction world with just enough historically based fiction blended in to make a great read. Unfortunately, while I can draw my own conclusions about whether the bottle is a fake or not, I would really like to know the true ending. The ending has me frustrated, but I still recommend this book. You will learn interesting facts about old wine while trying to solve a real mystery.
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