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.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Interesting story and good writing, but it runs out of gas
Comment: I am a big fan of wine and a big fan of antiques, so I read this book with great anticipation. I really enjoyed this book for about two thirds its length. After that, I think it really lost its steam. The trick to writing a "nonfiction mystery" is to dole out the clues and facts a little at a time. Enough to keep the reader engaged, but with enough questions left to keep you interested. In other words, a mystery is all about the chase. This is especially true with nonfiction where you already know the outcome.

Wallace is a skilled writer and excellent researcher, but he solves the mystery all at once and then leaves you to slog through the final cleaning up of details.

Still, I enjoyed the story enough to recommend it. The writing is fluid and the mystery is intriguing, but the most compelling part of this book is the characters. These people are the right amount of eccentric and obsessive.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Great gift for wine and history lovers!
Comment: bought this as a gift for my dad and he said that it is pretty interesting but it can get kinda dry at times. but the storyline and the insight on wine in history is what made him want to keep going and get kinda into it. so he said it was decent considering the subject. kinda tough to make a story super exciting about wine and Thomas Jefferson...

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Customer Rating:
Summary: a great read
Comment: Compelling and well-written. Gives great insight into the wine auction market and wine collecting. Save yourself some money and read this book before you bid in an auction for old wine.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Fantastic story, entertaining and informative
Comment: This is an enthralling story of a world few people have the privilege of getting mixed up in. It begins with one extraordinarily expensive and rare bottle of wine and turns into an international mystery with all sorts of oddball characters. From worldwide authorities on ancient wines, to reclusive chateau owners, to hot-shot collectors and mega rich CEO's, this story weaves it's way through all of their lives. Everything surrounds the secretive life of a man with an uncanny ability to uncover extremely old and rare wines, specifically a cache which belonged to Thomas Jefferson. By the end you are left wondering who to believe, while having learned a great deal about the high stakes wine market.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Forget Trader Joes; your secret find is at the bookstore
Comment: A week ago, if a 1982 Mouton-Rothschild showed up at Trader Joes, I would not have cared. Then, Lafite just sounded like a French word. But, now I'm hell bent on tasting both. Only, my husband won't let me sell the house.

If you know nothing about wine, this is a modern-day forensics mystery, riveting with historical twists and turns and lots of high-class scheudenfraud. (Think Esquire Magazine or Sunday's New York Times. This is the article that you wish were a book.) For wine lovers, especially those enamored with Thomas Jefferson and his cellar legacies, this is a must. Gossipy, well-researched and consistently engaging, it will leave you wanting more. Seriously. Brilliantly arcane. A secret pleasure. Gift with a really good bottle of wine. Perhaps Yquem?

(And Mike, if you're reading this, the wine guy downtown owns a few bottles.)

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