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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: $12.25
You Save: $12.70 (51%)
New (42) Used (15) from $10.90
Avg. Customer Rating:  31 reviews
Sales Rank: 1838
Media: Hardcover
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:
Interesting story and good writing, but it runs out of gas August 19, 2008
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.
Great gift for wine and history lovers! August 17, 2008
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...
 a great read August 14, 2008
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.
Fantastic story, entertaining and informative August 13, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
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.
Forget Trader Joes; your secret find is at the bookstore August 12, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
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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