The Billionaire's Vinegar: The Mystery of the World's Most Expensive Bottle of Wine » (Reprint)

BENJAMIN WALLACE has written for GQ, the Washington Post, Food & Wine, and Philadelphia, where he was the executive editor. He lives in Brooklyn.

Visit his website at BenjaminWallace.net.

“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

The Billionaire’s Vinegar 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. Updated for paperback with a new epilogue.

The New York Times - Bryan Miller

…captivating…Wallace frames his narrative as a suspenseful mystery, although we pretty well know whodunit early on. He escorts readers through the fast and fulsome world of high-stakes wine collecting, where $1,000 bottles of grand cru Burgundy are guzzled like lemonade and conversations revolve around trophy wines in home cellars that can be the size of a high school gymnasium.

1 Lot 337 1

2 Incognito 7

3 Tomb Raider 21

4 Monsieur Yquem 41

5 Provenance 57

6 "We Did What You Told Us" 67

7 Imaginary Value 81

8 The Sweetness of Death 95

9 Salad Dressing 107

10 A Pleasant Stain, but Not a Great One 125

11 The Diviner of Wines 139

12 A Built-in Preference for the Obvious 153

13 Radioactive 173

14 Letters from Hubsi 183

15 "Awash in Fakes" 197

16 The Last Vertical 213

17 Koch Bottles 225

18 Ghost Particles 237

19 Tailing Meinhard 251

20 The Finish 265

Notes 283

Acknowledgements 315