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Benjamin Wallace

The Billionaire's Vinegar: The Mystery of the World's Most Expensive Bottle of Wine Paperback – April 14, 2009

by Benjamin Wallace (Author)

1,341 ratings

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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

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Print length

323 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Three Rivers Press
Publication date

April 14, 2009
Dimensions

5.18 x 0.7 x 8.01 inches
ISBN-10

0307338789
ISBN-13

978-0307338785

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From the Publisher

Editorial Reviews

Review

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“Captivating.”
—New York Times Book Review

“The season's wine reading cannot get off to a better start than with The Billionaire’s Vinegar, one of the rare books on wine that transcends the genre ...Though the story is the collector’s world, the subject is also greed and how it can contort reality to fit one’s desires. It’s been optioned for Hollywood. I hope the movie’s as good as the book.”
—New York Times

“This is a captivating tale, even if you care nothing about wine.”
—Wall Street Journal

“Entertaining.”
—Washington Post

“Fine writing, great reporting, and a story so delicious you could have it for dessert.”
—Fortune

“Part detective story, part wine history, this is one juicy tale….as delicious as a true vintage Lafite.”
—Businessweek

“Splendid...A delicious mystery that winds through musty European cellars, Jefferson-era France and Monticello, engravers' shops, a nuclear physics lab, rival auction houses and legendary multi-day tastings conducted by the shadowy German who had discovered the Jefferson collection...Ripe for Hollywood.”
—USA Today

“A gem of a book...Mr. Wallace answers questions raised about Rodenstock and his remarkable find with a narrative that moves slowly and gracefully through lively and interesting information. Mr. Wallace seems to consciously take his time revealing what he knows, much like someone tasting a fine wine. There is no rush or urgency. Just a tale that oenophiles, history buffs and ordinary wine lovers alike will savor.”
—Washington Times

“This is a gripping story, expertly handled by Benjamin Wallace who writes with wit and verve, drawing the reader into a subculture strewn with eccentrics and monomaniacs...Full of detail that will delight wine lovers. It will also appeal to anyone who merely savours a great tale, well told.”
—The Economist

“A page-turner…What makes Wallace's book worth reading is the way he fleshes out the tale with entertaining digressions into Jefferson's wine adventures, how to fake wines (who knew a shotgun blast could make a bottle look old?) and dead-on portraits of several major wine personalities who intersected unhappily with the wines.”
—Bloomberg

“Wallace’s depiction of rabid oenophiles staging almost decadent events to swill rare wine, knowingly depleting the reserves, are as much fun as the mystery.”
—New York Daily News

“Terrific.”
—Slate

“The Billionaire's Vinegar, is at once a detective story and a sensational history—of wine, wine snobs and the most expensive bottle of wine ever sold.”
—NPR.org

“This book has no right to be as exciting as it is.”
—Good Morning America

“What people will be talking about.”
—GQ

“Call it wine noir... a reminder that great wine should be consumed, not just collected.”
—Men's Health

“A riveting wine history, wine mystery, and more.”
—Food & Wine

“For anyone with at least a curiosity about precious old wines and the love of a good story, this well-crafted piece of journalism may prove as intriguing and enjoyable as a fine old Bordeaux.”
—Seattle Times

“Nicely peels back the covers of a world most of us will never see.”
—Dallas Morning News

“The book handles a dozen tangential plots with Dickensian ease... The Billionaire's Vinegar is the rare book that transcends its topic, reaching out to anyone interested in a good mystery, while at the same time going into enough detail to be of interest to a serious wine drinker.”
—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“Misplaced trust, gullibility, vanity, chicanery and old-fashioned greed occupy center stage in this engrossing tale... Wallace meticulously unravels [Hardy] Rodenstock's inexorable exposure as a fraud.”
—The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

“An astonishing tale of intrigue, greed, pride and ego... Is this book worth your time and effort to find and read? Undoubtedly.”
—Dayton Daily News

“A rich blend of historical narrative and page-flipping mystery that will keep both oenophiles and teetotalers riveted.”
—Philadelphia Magazine

“Brings together the disparate themes of wealth, greed, narcissism, ego, and fraud, with a dollop of history and some nifty detective work thrown in for good measure... Wallace's book deserves the broad readership at which it is clearly aiming, reaching far beyond the confines of the wine trade and wine collectors.”
—The World of Fine Wine

“Masterfully unravel[s] a fast-paced tale of power, deception, and oenophilic excess... has the feverish momentum of a page-turner... offering an unprecedented portrait of a case that rocked an impossibly exclusive world to its foundation.”
—Bold Type

“Truly riveting... For anyone familiar with the wine world, the book will provide extraordinary enjoyment, more or less as beach material. But this book has great potential to cross over to a mainstream audience... In some ways, the most interesting aspect of the story is how people want so much to believe in things, and so, they do. That is really the take-away message of the book, and Wallace has done a lovely job of presenting it.”
—Barron's

“A superb storyteller... engaging and vivid, Wallace's prose is supremely well composed, and turns a complex web of commercial transactions—albeit an intriguing one—into a mystery of Hitchcockian proportions.”
—Decanter

“Benjamin Wallace's brilliant new book is a work of carefully-researched fact, rather than fiction, but it's not short of drama, intrigue or remarkable personalities... a fascinating, page-flipping mystery... a forensic, and frequently amusing, examination of the world of fine and rare wine.”
—Wine & Spirit

“A rich depiction of the history of wine—its prestige, its chemistry, its recurring susceptibility to fraudulence... There is delicious insider's gossip aplenty in this book, enough to keep any serious wine aficionado turning the pages. And for those with a more casual interest, Wallace's centuries-spanning narrative and sharp eye for detail make the book a fun and informative read.”
—ImbibeMagazine.com

“So well written that it is an absolute pleasure to read... [a] profound look into the world of wine collecting.”
—Dr. Vino's Wine Blog

“A modern nonfiction who done it... transports the reader back and forth through time and across the sea, from the boardrooms of 20th century publishing tycoons to 18th century France and the young American nation... Pull the cork on The Billionaire's Vinegar and you will sip at it, enjoying it as it develops, until every last drop is drunk.”
—The Gloucester Daily Times

“A tale peopled with famous and infamous characters, plunder and plonk and more than a dash of hoax and history.”
—Reuters

“A briskly written tale of intrigue and deceit.”
—Hemispheres

“[T]his thoroughly researched, engagingly written book presents the evidence from both sides... Full of entertaining real life personalities, it's a brilliant analysis of the world of fine and rare wines. It deserves to win every prize going.”
—The Guardian

“An old bottle of wine is rare, but a ripping good mystery about one is rarer still... Wallace's narrative leads us into a world of heiresses, celebrities, rogues, bankers, tomb raiders, dilettantes, villains, Arab potentates, millionaires and, as the tale darkens, forensic scientists, glass and handwriting experts, Jefferson scholars, FBI agents and federal court judges...For those who can't stomach another wine guide, The Billionaire's Vinegar makes learning about wine palatable... Wallace brings a reporter's discipline to both the depth of his research and to the even-handed treatment of his findings.”
—The Globe and Mail (CANADA)

  “Wallace sips the story slowly, taking leisurely digressions into techniques for faking wine and detecting same with everything from Monticello scholarship to nuclear physics. He paints a colorful backdrop of eccentric oenophiles, decadent tastings and overripe flavor rhetoric… Investigating wines so old and rare they could taste like anything, he playfully questions the very foundations of connoisseurship.”
—Publishers Weekly

“[Wallace] offers a revealing look at the influx into the esoteric field of wine connoisseurship of major-player egos and big money, which created a tricky and rarified market similar to that for expensive art—and encouraged fakes in both…There's no denying the appeal of this enthrallingly mad and recondite subject.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“A richly intriguing tale.”
—Library Journal

“It is the fine details--the bouquet, the body, the notes, the finish--that make this book such a lasting pleasure, to be savored and remembered long after the last page is turned. Ben Wallace has told a splendid story just wonderfully, his touch light and deft, his instinct pitch-perfect. Of all the marvelous legends of the wine trade, this curiously unforgettable saga most amply deserves the appellation: a classic.”
—Simon Winchester, author of The Professor and the Madman and A Crack in the Edge of the World

“The Billionaire’s Vinegar is the ultimate page-turner. Written with literary intelligence, it has a cast of characters like something out Fawlty Towers meets The Departed. It takes you into a subculture so deep and delicious, you can almost taste the wine that turns so many seemingly rational people into madmen. It is superb nonfiction.”
—Buzz Bissinger, author of Friday Night Lights

“I thoroughly enjoyed the book... fascinating...”
—Robert M. Parker, Jr.

“A great read... I think most readers will enjoy the detail and, like me, learn much from it... All in all this book is thoroughly recommended.”
—Jancis Robinson

About the Author

Benjamin Wallace is the New York Times bestselling author of The Billionaire’s Vinegar. He has been a features writer at New York and a contributing editor at Vanity Fair.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter 1

Lot 337

A hush had come over the West Room. Photographers' flashes strobed the standing-room-only crowd silently, and the lone sound was the crisp voice of the auctioneer. To the world, Michael Broadbent projected a central-casting British cool, but under the bespoke suit, he was practicing a kind of mind control that calmed him in these situations. The trick was to focus narrowly, almost autistically, on numbers: lot number, number of bidders, paddle numbers, bid steps.

Even after all these years, he still found it bracingly creative to conjure excitement out of a heap of dirty old bottles. No matter how many of them the fifty-eight-year-old Broadbent might see, he retained his boyish sense of marvel at the longevity of wine. Inert antiques were all very well, but there was magic in old wine--a mysterious and wonderful alchemy in something that could live and change for two hundred years and still be drinkable.

Auctioneer was Broadbent's most public role, but it was only one of his distinctions in the wine world. In London he cut a familiar figure, pedaling to work each day on his Dutch ladies' bicycle with basket, legs gunning furiously, a trilby hat perched on his head. Often he was elsewhere, and he kept up a brutal schedule. As founding director of the Christie's wine department, he had spent the last two decades crisscrossing the planet, cataloging the dank and dusty contents of rich men's cellars, tasting tens of thousands of fine wines, and jotting his impressions in slender red hardcover notebooks. Those unassuming scribblings amounted to the most comprehensive diary of wine ever recorded. That diary now consisted of sixty of the Ideal notebooks, and he had collected them in a published tome that was the standard reference on old wines. Under Broadbent's direction, Christie's had largely invented and come to dominate the global market in old and rare wines. While Christie's as a whole was smaller than its great rival, Sotheby's, its wine department was more than twice as big, bringing in 7.3 million the previous season.

Broadbent's peers in the trade acknowledged that his palate was the most experienced in the world. His pocket textbook on wine tasting, the definitive work of its kind, was in its eleventh edition, having sold more than 160,000 copies, and had been translated into eight languages. Any collector hosting an event that aspired to any seriousness made sure to invite Broadbent and his famously sensitive nose. When he arrived at a wine gathering, if so much as a trace of woodsmoke or the merest whiff of cigarette ash besmirched the air, Broadbent would scrunch up his nose, and everything would come to a halt while windows and doors were flung open.

A lean six feet tall, Broadbent had a fringy sweep of whitening hair, and his smile, distinctly hail-fellow-well-met, was tempered by the cocked eyebrow of a worldly man. He looked more aristocratic than many of the dukes and princes alongside whom he sat on Christie's board of directors.

When Broadbent tasted, he would lay his wristwatch next to his little red notebook, so that he could time the wine's changes in the glass. During lulls, if a piano was on hand, he might charm guests with some Brahms, or he might go off by himself to sketch the local scenery.

He was happy to opine, at these tastings, on the wines under consideration. He had a knack for putting wine into memorable words. Sometimes he borrowed from literature, describing one wine as "black as Egypt's night." More often, he minted his own rakish descriptions, seeing a woman in every wine. A '79 P€trus reminded him of Sophia Loren: "You can admire them, but you don't want to go to bed with them." A double magnum of '47 Cantenac-Brown evoked chocolate and "schoolgirls' uniforms."

The taste of the wine he was selling right now in London, just past 2:30 p.m. on Thursday, December 5, 1985, was impossible to know. December 5 had special meaning for Broadbent; it was the same date that James Christie, in 1766, had held the auction house's very first sale. Moments earlier, Broadbent had stepped up to the rostrum in a three-piece suit with a pocket square, and peered out at the room through his eyeglasses.

Lot 337 was the first item of the afternoon session and had been carefully removed from its green felt berth in a glass case nearby. Lucy Godsal, a secretary in Broadbent's office, held the bottle aloft for the room to see. She looked very Christie's--blond, headband, pearl necklace--and Broadbent liked her; she was smart, hardworking, and pretty.

Broadbent had never sold anything quite like this before. A Ch€teau Lafite from 1787, it was the oldest authenticated vintage red wine ever to come up for auction at Christie's. And that was the least of its merits. The bottle was engraved with the initials "Th.J." As Broadbent had described it in the auction catalog, "Th.J. are the initials of Thomas Jefferson." Almost miraculously, the bottle was full of wine and appeared to have survived two centuries intact. The container itself was beautiful and distinctive. "This is one time," Broadbent quipped to the crowd, "when the buyer will get something back on the bottle."

The admittedly fragmentary tale of how the bottle had been found only added to its mystique. According to Hardy Rodenstock, the German collector who had consigned the bottle to Christie's, in the spring of 1985 workers tearing down a house in Paris had broken through a false wall in the basement and happened upon a hidden cache of extremely old wines. The Lafite, inscribed with the initials of the Founding Father, who had lived in Paris from 1784 to 1789 and was the foremost American wine connoisseur of his day, had been among them.

The integrity of the seals, and the high fill levels, Rodenstock had told Broadbent, were remarkable for their age. The cellar had been almost hermetically preserved, its steady temperature in the sweet spot of 50 to 57 degrees Fahrenheit. Rodenstock theorized that the bottles had been walled up to protect them during the chaos of the French Revolution, and had lain undisturbed for two hundred years.

Not surprisingly, Rodenstock refused to divulge the precise location, the exact number of bottles, or anything else about the discovery, despite Broadbent's entreaties. Rodenstock was the leading private collector in Europe, and he had already made a name for himself in rare-wine circles as an unusually skilled bottle hunter. Though he was a longtime customer of Christie's, Rodenstock was a competitor when it came to obtaining private cellars. Private-cellar purchases were often cash deals that went unreported to tax authorities. A certain reticence about his sources was to be expected.

Broadbent felt there were a couple of possibilities. One was that the bottle had indeed been discovered during the excavations of the old Marais district in Paris, much of which had recently been torn up and redeveloped. A rumor less credited by Broadbent, and which he had no intention of putting in the catalog copy, was that the bottle had been part of some sort of Nazi cellar.

Broadbent knew Rodenstock well, trusted him, and would not normally be too concerned with how he had obtained the bottle. But to Broadbent's annoyance, a historical researcher in America had recently been making noises in the press, questioning whether the bottle was in fact Jefferson's. Broadbent had conducted his own research and was satisfied that the circumstantial evidence argued overwhelmingly in favor of the attribution. He couldn't prove it, but on balance, the inducements to proceed outweighed any risk of embarrassment.

The auctioneer's delight in an object that would sell itself accounted for only half of Broadbent's excitement. There was also the oenophile's anticipation, for Lafite was Broadbent's favorite wine. He loved the way it developed in the glass, revealing new depths and facets as it breathed. He thought Lafite the acme of elegance, a racehorse beside the thoroughbred of Mouton and the carthorse of Latour. But to open a bottle as old as this was to play roulette; Broadbent couldn't help wondering what it might taste like. And how to price such an object? When cataloging it for auction, Broadbent gave the estimate as "inestimable." He was rather pleased with his pun.

A number of commission bids--those placed in advance by bidders who could not, or didn't want to, attend--had come in. Chateau Lafite-Rothschild, modern successor to the eighteenth-century vineyard, had placed a 5,000 bid; this had been so eclipsed by other advance bids that the Chateau was out of the running before the session even began. Broadbent could feel confident that a new single-bottle price record was about to be set.

In the West Room, he opened the bidding at 10,000. At first the bids came slowly, moving in 2,000 increments. A paddle would rise here. Another would bob up there. But things quickly heated up, and soon several people were raising paddles at every step.

Broadbent knew everyone in the London trade, and many of them were here in this room, but he reserved his greatest expectations for the Americans. The Jefferson connection, the strength of the dollar (it had hit a historic high earlier in the year), recent auction history--all these factors would surely tempt a deep-pocketed Yank to repatriate the bottle. Marvin Shanken, publisher of the magazine Wine Spectator, was here today, but Broadbent's highest hopes were aimed at the fellow who sat left of the center aisle from where Broadbent stood: Christoper "Kip" Forbes, the thirty-five-year-old son of publisher Malcolm Forbes.

Broadbent didn't think much of Malcolm Forbes, finding him to be a mean sort of chap. He knew that the American publisher collected first growths, the top-ranked Bordeaux reds, though only in lousy vintages. But it was undeniable that Forbes had money and would spend it for something he wanted, and Kip soon entered the bidding.

The price volleyed remorselessly to 20,000, then 30,000. At 40,000, it seemed, fleetingly, that a cap might have been reached, but the bidding resurged. Only after Kip Forbes bid 50,000--$75,000--did all the other paddles stay down. This was a new record for a bottle of wine, by a wide margin. The previous record, set the year before at an auction in Dallas, was $38,000 for a Jeroboam (equivalent to six bottles) of 1870 Mouton-Rothschild; the record for a normal-size bottle was $31,000, paid in 1980 for an 1822 Lafite. Today's price now far exceeded Broadbent's most wishful imaginings. He felt vindicated by his decision to go ahead with the sale.

He began the ritual countdown. "Any more?"

He scanned the crowd for takers. "Any more?"

Again Broadbent looked around the room, daring the bidders with his eyes to outdo Forbes. Nothing.

Then, at the rear of the room, he saw a movement.

Chapter 2

Incognito

On February 22, 1788, writing from Paris, Thomas Jefferson placed an order for 250 bottles of Lafite. In the past he would have sent the letter to one of the merchants through whom he had previously made his wine requests. But on this occasion he wrote directly to the owner of the property, having recently become wise to the dangers of doing otherwise.

Now forty-four years old, Jefferson was an especially tall man by eighteenth-century standards, topping six foot two, with an erect posture, a ruddy, freckled face, and fair, reddish hair. He had spent the last four years as American commissioner, and then minister, to France. Faint tremors of class struggle had become the insistent rumblings of the early French Revolution, and Jefferson was torn. The author of the Declaration of Independence sympathized with the poor and oppressed, while the gourmand and the architect of Monticello were drawn to the refinements of salon culture.

He had welcomed the chance to come to Europe. Jefferson's beloved wife, Martha, had died when he was just thirty-nine, leaving him a grieving widower and single father. And Jefferson had dreamed of coming to France since he was a young man. The diversions of Paris were exactly what he needed to lift him out of his depression. In contrast to his earthier fellow minister, Ben Franklin, who was legendary in the City of Light for wearing a beaver hat and biting the heads off asparagus, Jefferson fit right in.

Though he called himself "a savage of the mountains of America," in France Jefferson took to wearing a powdered wig and a topaz ring. His mansion on the Champs-Elysees was a place of blue silk damask curtains, crystal decanters, a well-stocked wine cellar, and a household staff that included a frotteur, whose sole function was to clean the parquet floors by spinning around with brushes strapped to his feet. Intoxicated with the French high life, Jefferson hosted frequent dinner parties, serving some of the best wines of France.

Jefferson was not the only Founding Father who was fond of wine. Ben Franklin, for one, kept a substantial cellar in Paris and called wine "proof that God loves us and that he likes to see us happy." But Jefferson, who had been ordering wine for many years, had recently acquired an unmatched breadth and depth of knowledge about the subject.

Not only had he learned which were the best wines, but he had also become savvy about the mischief to which an unwary consumer might fall prey. In his 1788 letter to the owner of Lafite, Jefferson spelled out his concern directly: "If it would be possible to have them bottled and packed at your estate, it would doubtless be a guarantee that the wine was genuine, and the drawing-off and so forth well done." Jefferson owed his newfound wine sophistication to a life-changing trip he had made the year before.

The time was ripe for an escape from Paris. He had become infatuated with a married English-Italian woman, Maria Cosway, but by early 1787 the romance seemed to have fizzled. In February, with his daughter Patsy safely cloistered in a convent school and his official duties in the hands of William Short, his trusted personal secretary, Jefferson embarked on a tour of France and northern Italy. He had dislocated his right wrist in a mysterious accident--historians have speculated that he was trying to jump over a fence to impress Cosway--and he justified the trip as being curative.

His itinerary also happened to take him through all of the country's major wine regions. In view of Jefferson's personal debts, which were already substantial, and the momentous challenges facing the struggling young country that was paying his way in Europe, the decision to take a three-and-a-half-month vacation could be seen as almost comically self-indulgent. Patsy Jefferson noted rather freshly, in a letter to her father a week after he left Paris, that she was "inclined to think that your voyage is rather for your pleasure than for your health."

Jefferson had been keen on wine for a long time. When he began building Monticello in 1769, at the age of twenty-six, the first part constructed was the wine cellar.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Three Rivers Press
Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 14, 2009
Edition ‏ : ‎ First Edition
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Print length ‏ : ‎ 323 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0307338789
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0307338785
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.18 x 0.7 x 8.01 inches
Best Sellers Rank: #68,095 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #32 in Wine (Books)
- #45 in Homebrewing, Distilling & Wine Making
- #49 in Hoaxes & Deceptions
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Benjamin Wallace

Benjamin Wallace

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BENJAMIN WALLACE is the New York Times-bestselling author of The Billionaire's Vinegar. He has been a features writer at New York magazine and a contributing editor at Vanity Fair.

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Customers find this book to be a fascinating true crime story filled with fine wine information and well-researched details about wine history and fakery. Moreover, the writing quality receives positive feedback, with one customer noting it reads like forensic fiction. However, the pacing receives mixed reviews, with several customers finding it too much jumping around.

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149 customers mention "Readability"128 positive21 negative

Customers find the book readable and entertaining, particularly for wine enthusiasts, with one customer noting how the prose immerses the reader in the story.

"I'm a wine snob, I admit it. This was a great read. I love wine but more so I love reading about the secrets of the industry...." Read more

"As a wine lover I found this a fast, and interesting, read ... Even if it did make me question the collecting of this beverage...." Read more

"Once again, truth proves stranger than fiction. Great read. Fascinating story. Excellent "sequel" to William Echikson's Noble Rot...." Read more

"Great book for those who love history and wine!" Read more

67 customers mention "Story quality"56 positive11 negative

Customers find the book's story compelling, describing it as a fascinating true crime narrative with multiple plots and suspenseful elements.

"...for germanium, thermoluminescence, carbon, and lead, create a fascinating story of how the wine market has evolved to the present and the safeguards..." Read more

"...It is in itself a great story--the only setback is the story is not yet finished--as countless reviewers noted...." Read more

"Interesting story, but a fair amount of jumping around. This makes it difficult to remember characters." Read more

"interesting story if you're a oenophile but comes to an abrupt ending. probably could have waited to publish until more details come out...." Read more

54 customers mention "Information quality"44 positive10 negative

Customers find the book informative and well-researched, providing fascinating details about wine history and fakery.

"...Well researched and filled with details about the wine industry, the book bears reading now, in light of recent decisions in the lawsuits brought..." Read more

"...A wonderful read, every chapter vividly written, well-researched, and overflowing with what may be intriguing, quirky insights into the wine-buying..." Read more

"...and selling and I found the material fascinating as well as educational...." Read more

"...And along with all this, there's lots of fine wine information for anyone who is as interested as I was, and am...." Read more

35 customers mention "History"34 positive1 negative

Customers find the book's historical content engaging, with one customer noting how it explores the Bordeaux wine industry, while another appreciates how it connects to early US history.

"...Its ridiculous sums of money, intrigue, deception, history, and how the wine industry works...." Read more

"...not just for its qualities as wine but also because of its historical importance...." Read more

"This is a captivating investigation...." Read more

"...It is an interesting tale of history--of Thomas Jefferson, the French, wines, and people...." Read more

32 customers mention "Writing quality"28 positive4 negative

Customers praise the writing quality of the book, describing it as well written and fast-paced, with one customer noting it reads like forensic fiction.

"Heard a review and was interested. Well written and easy to follow...." Read more

"...This is one of those wildly but subtly, well-written, fun books where you find yourself rooting for what might turn out to be the bad guy ...." Read more

"Superbly written...." Read more

"A great story, very detailed and well written, makes me look at vintage wine with a wiser perspective!" Read more

22 customers mention "Mystery"19 positive3 negative

Customers enjoy the mystery in the book, describing it as an excellent real-life story where the truth is more interesting than fiction.

"...Maximilian Potter has written a riveting tale about a true-life criminal escapade perpetrated on one of the world’s great wineries, Shadows in the..." Read more

"...most of us, insane sums on bottles of wine, it is in reality a real-life mystery and suspense story...." Read more

"This is another exhibit in the argument that truth is more interesting than fiction. Excellent history of the wine business...." Read more

"This is an interesting mix of true crime, the intricacies and snobbery of the vintage wine market, those who can afford to participate in this high-..." Read more

12 customers mention "Wine knowledge"12 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's wine knowledge, with reviews highlighting its comprehensive coverage of the rare wine industry and high-stakes wine business, while one customer notes it serves as a college-level course in old world wine.

"...Good look at Thomas Jefferson's penchant for record keeping, his interest in wine and a brief look into the thoroughness of the folks at Monticello..." Read more

"...an interesting mix of true crime, the intricacies and snobbery of the vintage wine market, those who can afford to participate in this high-end..." Read more

"...It was like a college level course in old world wine and its customs...." Read more

"...non-fiction about the sale of a VERY expensive, rare, historic bottle of wine that leads to international consternation and research...." Read more

26 customers mention "Pacing"13 positive13 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the pacing of the book, with some finding it well-paced while others describe it as slow and too much jumping around chronologically.

"...It has a literary quality that is matched with Mr. Potter’s exceedingly dramatic pacing that creates tension you can swat at with a grape vine...." Read more

"This book was very dry. It starts out slow and did not get any better as I went along." Read more

"...This is one of those wildly but subtly, well-written, fun books where you find yourself rooting for what might turn out to be the bad guy ...." Read more

"...Too much name dropping made it drag a little in spots, but on the whole a good read." Read more

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Owl
A Splendid Vintage of a Story
Reviewed in the United States on February 19, 2013
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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!

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Robert P Gelms
Whining
Reviewed in the United States on October 19, 2015
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Wine Whines
By Bob Gelms

The Billionaire’s Vinegar

How many out there like to drink wine? I thought so, me too. Well this book is an entertaining tome about mega rich people behaving over the top about super rare wines that, in the grand scheme of things, shouldn’t really be all that important. It’s also about super rich people getting ripped off for a mega amount of money and that’s always very entertaining.

The story in The Billionaire’s Vinegar dizzyingly revolves around a cache of Bordeaux wine from a superb Chateau circa 1788. That in itself would make this story drink splendidly. The real kicker in all this, and the aspect that had everyone connected to it panting like a thirsty man just in from the desert willing to drink just about anything, is that these bottles were owned by Thomas Jefferson. Wait for it – he also initialed all the bottles.

The man who found the Jefferson bottles, Hardy Rodenstock, is a rather mysterious German wine dealer with a suspicious past and a knack for discovering tremendously rare bottles of some of the world’s best wines. At the time of the Jefferson discovery, an American family with a love for all things Jefferson was supporting an exhibit of Jefferson memorabilia from their vast collection of Jefferson items. The family scion was sent to purchase the bottle at auction. He did and spent $165,000 for the one bottle of wine. I need to mention right here that we are talking about the Forbes family as in Malcolm Forbes and his son Christopher. They were hoodwinked.

There was suspicion from the beginning that Hardy Rodenstock had counterfeited the Jefferson bottles. There wasn’t any proof but there was plenty of suspicion. If you have the desire to counterfeit a bottle of wine The Billionaires Vinegar has a chapter or two on how you can do it and probably get away with it.

This is an intriguing peek into the highbrow world of rare wines and the super rich and what they like to do in their spare time. I was amazed at how cavalier the bottles were treated by the people who bought them. It was as if paying $100,000 for a bottle of wine was an everyday thing and once they had it, it wasn’t interesting any more. I don’t get it but I sure as hell would drink a glass if it was offered to me.

Shadows In The Vineyard

Maximilian Potter has written a riveting tale about a true-life criminal escapade perpetrated on one of the world’s great wineries, Shadows in the Vineyard: The True Story of the Plot to Poison the World's Greatest Wine.
Oenophiles have, more or less, treated the wine region of Burgundy as the bastard stepchild of its more famous sister over in Bordeaux. Those in the know, however, say that wines from Burgundy regularly outperform wines from any other region in France.

There is one Chateau that sits at the top of the pyramid. It is the Domaine de la Romanee-Conti, simplified to DRC. Wine experts consider wines from this Chateau to be the finest in the world and the most expensive wines from the Burgundy region. The terrior of DRC sits on the best wine growing dirt on planet Earth. It’s hard to deny this when you taste their wine.

The crime was a simple one. Blackmail. A mysterious villain, Jacques Soltys, living the life of a hermit in the woods, decides to cash in for the big score. He seems, to me, to be part chemist, botanist and vintner. He is a failure at almost everything he has tried including bank robbing, kidnapping and other illegal schemes.

Now comes Aubert de Villaine, the aristocratic headman and owner of DRC. He receives a puzzling letter that, at first, he disregards. It is, of course, a ransom note. De Villaine will pay the criminal €1 million. If not, the vines themselves will be poisoned. This scheme attacks the basic values and principles of what it means to be French. It is a crime so preposterous as to be almost unthinkable. It can be likened to blowing up the Jefferson Memorial unless you were paid $3 million.

This is a real crime that occurred in 2010 and, sad to say, it partially succeeded. There is a confluence of brilliant detectives, chemists and botanists who try to defeat Soltys. The good guys set up a very clever sting operation to catch Mr. Soltys. A lot happens; a lot.

In the annuls of true crime books this is right up there. It has a literary quality that is matched with Mr. Potter’s exceedingly dramatic pacing that creates tension you can swat at with a grape vine. This is for both lovers of wine and the folks who like true crime. This crime is dastardly and its solving is both clever and timely. I sure enjoyed Shadows in the Vineyard and I’m thinking you will as well.

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G. Elston
And then what?
Reviewed in the United States on April 27, 2011
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This book promises so much and delivers almost all of it. The author is a great writer, and his prose pulls the reader into a totally immerse experience. Unfortunately after being totally absorbed for 90% of the book, the reader is left with an ending but no conclusion. It almost feels as if the author just gave up on the book, wrote a few pages as a concluding chapter, left it there and went off for tea. I found it incredibly frustrating that the book was not tied up at the end and I found myself checking to see if I had missed something, or if the Kindle had somehow not downloaded the whole book. The culture of ultra-rich wine connoisseurs and their amazing collections is covered extremely well, the main characters are developed to a point where you almost feel you know them personally. Oenophiles will love this book, but even those with a casual interest in wine will find it absorbing. I do though eventually look forward to this book being "completed" as the ending lets the book down to such a degree that it goes from 5 stars to three.

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Top reviews from other countries

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Pedro Dalguini
Amazing
Reviewed in Spain on April 16, 2025
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Fascinating story of real life. Loved it.

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Inclusivity
Worth reading.
Reviewed in Australia on January 8, 2025
Verified Purchase
After finishing reading this book, my faith in any so-called trained sommeliers has been totally annihilated. Even industry stalwarts, like Jancis Robinson, disappoint. Do I recommend this book?j Absolutely. But if you have ever considered trusting another's judgement over your own on what or what not to buy (in terms of actual taste), think again. And if you have toyed with the idea of becoming an investor of wines...don't, is the short answer. Quite a book, and yet the whole system (fraudulent as it may be), continues unabated. Fascinating.

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Cassidy
Just a really good read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 25, 2013
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I was interested in this book due to recent news about wine fraud. I work in the wine industry, but think this is sufficiently well written and explanatory that those with little or no wine knowledge should find it easy to understand and a really enjoyable read. Thought it might be a little dry, but there's enough 'plot' to keep it interesting.

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Monika Goerigk - Schönleber
Ein hervorragendes Geschenk für Weinliebhaber!
Reviewed in Germany on November 29, 2013
Verified Purchase
Super toll geschrieben und sehr mitreißend, dass es schwer fiel das Buch zur Seite zu legen.
Ich kann dieses Buch jedem Weinliebhaber wärmstens empfehlen, auch in deutscher Sprache.
Zum Wohl!

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Amazon Customer
Great book
Reviewed in Canada on January 4, 2025
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Fantastic book

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