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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: 3160
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:
 A great yarn June 12, 2008
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
I read this book in two sittings. Just a terrific, ripping yarn, full of amazing, vivid characters and beautiful prose. Not only do you get to learn about this rarified world of expensive wine -- a world full of rich people behaving badly -- but you also learn about the hedonism of Thomas Jefferson, and the lameness of Brit-vs.-Yank snobbery, and the psychology of a con job, and (surprisingly, wonderfully) the science of proton beams and carbon dating. Also, despite the fact that the book goes down soooooo easy, it's deceptively daring... you'll have to read it to see why. Up there with "The Devil in the White City" and "The Professor and the Madman" and "Into the Wild" in terms of sheer storytelling power.
great read June 11, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
Since I did not follow this story in the news and am rather new to wine this was a fabulous read. Mr. Wallace keeps you filled with information and knowledge on wine tasting, history and the individuals. He weaves a solid tale and I would recommend for anyone new or experienced.
 Collector's Book June 9, 2008
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
The author is like one of the wine collectors he writes about who has to have more than the other guy. Wallace includes every fact he comes across, no matter how tangential.
The book goes on and on with vintages and details and minor characters. Then it ends. As gripping as a Wikipedia article.
If you want a "mesmerizing history of wine," this is the book for you. If you want a compelling detective story, well, wait for the movie. Hollywood will strip it down and sex it up, I'm sure.
One of the Most Surprising Books I Have Read in a Long Time June 9, 2008
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
It's hard to know what to expect from a book, labeled a "mystery," which tells the true story behind the purchase of one bottle of wine. Granted, it was the most expensive bottle of wine ever sold. And while I like wine as much as the next guy, there's a limit to how much wine-related information I can digest (or perhaps should digest) as well as to how much interest I can muster for a transaction involving the expenditure of more than $158,000 for a single bottle of wine (what would that be, by the way, in today's dollars and how many people would it feed are questions that come to mind immediately). Notwithstanding my reservations, however, I found this book to be a well-written and well-researched piece of investigative journalism concerning what may well be one of the brashest hoaxes in modern history. It held my interest right to the last page. I was hoping it would go on, but the intrigue surrounding this bottle of wine has not, apparently, seen its last chapter - reality stinks like that sometimes.
The production of wine is indeed a complex business, and Mr. Wallace provides a very interesting overview of certain aspects of it, as well as a fascinating historical discussion of the development of America's wine industry. What I found most riveting, however, was the author's portrayal of the psychological perspective of the serious wine collector and of some of the "experts." It was surprising to learn of the competitiveness and self-indulgence not of the various vineyards involved in the production of some of the finest wines in the world, but of those drinking it (or maybe just displaying it) and selling it. The descriptions of wine-tasting events and the extravagances associated with them gave new meaning to the term "excess", even while making my mouth water with some wonderful decriptions of the wines being served. In the end, it was so difficult to garner sympathy for some of these "victims" that I was surprised to learn that so many of them actually cooperated in the author's investigation!
Suffice it to say that it will probably come as no shock that the very self-indulgence that seems to qualify one as a true "oenophile" -- at least where these old (dare I say antique?) wines are concerned -- may well have set the stage for the major bilking that is played out in the pages of this wonderful book. It is also no wonder that this amazing tale ends, at least for now, in protracted litigation, which as Mr. Wallace describes in great detail, costs drastically more money (to investigate and attempt to prove the fraud) than could ever be recovered from its alleged perpetrators. Apparently this makes sense to someone, but perhaps only someone who would spend thousands and thousands of dollars on a bottle of wine whose provenance could not possibly be proven.
Even if you are not a wine crazed person, this story of greed, excess, fraud, and litigation will make you ponder the priorities of the frightfully rich in a whole new way. And it may even hold a lesson or two for the rabid collectors among us.
In Vino Veritas June 4, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Thoroughly enjoyable, excellent writing, an excellent read. In fact I read it in one sitting. It's a glimpse into the world of high end oenophilia (or perhaps snobbery), at a level of luxury that only handfuls will ever know. And it's a ripping good mystery to boot. My only complaint is that it peters out a bit at the end, but it is nonfiction, and life will do that sometimes.
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