The Billionaire's Vinegar
Subtitle: The Mystery of the World's Most Expensive Bottle of Wine
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Published: April 14, 2009
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 336
ISBN-13: 9780307338785
Subjects: Cooking, Food & Wine -- Drinks & Beverages -- Spirits; Cooking, Food & Wine -- Gastronomy -- History
Description: It was the most expensive bottle of wine ever sold. In 1985, a 1787 bottle of Cha^teau Lafite Bordeaux--one of a cache unearthed in a bricked-up Paris cellar and supposedly owned by Thomas Jefferson--sold at auction for $156,000. 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 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? Author Wallace also offers a 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. This tale of what could be the most elaborate con since the Hitler diaries is also the debut of a new voice in narrative non-fiction.--From publisher description.