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| The Billionaire's Vinegar: The Mystery of the World's Most Expensive Bottle of Wine | 
 enlarge | Author: Benjamin Wallace
Publisher: Crown
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $14.72
You Save: $10.23 (41%)
New (37) Used (16) from $13.17
Avg. Customer Rating:  45 reviews
Sales Rank: 3413
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.3
ISBN: 0307338770
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.2223
EAN: 9780307338778
ASIN: 0307338770
Publication Date: May 13, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
Can it be proven its NOT a fake? July 30, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Great fun read into the world of high end collecting. Big egos and big money mixed with inconclusive evidence. Quite a cocktail. Potentially dull as old nails, but the extensive research and excellent storytelling of the author delivers this eminently readable tale. How collecting has evolved from a small select group of true wine lovers into a frenetic state of egos, experts, finger-pointing and suspicions.
Broadbent and Rodenstock are the principal players in bidding up bottles of venerable yet questionable old wines; but this book features many others. From foolish status-seekers merely drinking money to the true connoisseurs, all have the collector gene and cannot stop. Several classic stories, asides and anecdotes makes for LOL reading. Some may say it is published too early yet I think it points you to where you can draw your own conclusions.
Shame on the "experts" July 24, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
An excellent book which traces the history of the very rare wine market and explains how its excesses led to the Rodenstock-Koch-Broadbent fiasco. The author deftly explores both the business issues and the psychology of the rare wine world, and shows little mercy for the "experts" who were taken in by Rodenstock, either because of cupidity or stupidity.
 a great tipple July 23, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a gripping read. Hard some times to think its non fiction given the complexity and deviousness of the players
We need a new TV series: CSI Bordeaux July 14, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
As a wine writer for more than 30 years who knows some of the players mentioned in the book, I enjoyed the way Benjamin Wallace cleverly wove together history, the world of wine and France in particular and the hoax so many bought into. Not only does he chronicle an incredible array of details into understandable context with dexterity, he weaves in a steady thread of humor (Harry Waugh, the English wine merchant and writer, was once asked how often he confused Bordeaux with Burgundy. "Not since lunch," he replied."). The confusion and complicity of some of the world's best-known wine critics and auctioneers comes to light as the hoax unfolds. Some reputations are ruined because of seeming complicity.
One parallel that might have been pursued further: the brilliance of Bill Koch, the billionaire who exposed the fraud, and Thomas Jefferson, whose name was attached to the most expensive bottle of wine ever sold. Both were meticulous in their work and record-keeping. The fact that no records existed at Monticello of the so-called Jefferson bottles should have put the Rodenstock collection into question immediately. Then, with carbon dating and other modern technology, the Koch team exposed the fraud. A tale well told.
 A little disappointed July 9, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I was very interested when I had the sample sent to my Kindle. I read the sample and was intrigued. The story seemed to drift back and forth. It was somewhat confusing at times. I was disappointed by the ending of the story. I feel as though the author was confused himself with his telling of the events that took place. I had to force myself to continue reading until I finished.
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