Book Review: The Billionaire’s Vinegar

A nonfiction mystery written by Benjamin Wallace

Reviewed by Dick Rizzo

Winemakers have chosen to be involved with a process that chemically transforms a few common ingredients into a complex beverage, one that develops flavors and aromas that continue to evolve over time. Many factors influence this development—the soil where the grapes are grown, the variety of grape, the yeast selected, the time spent in specific aging vessels and even the environment within the storage area. What happens to all this wine once it leaves the winery?

You may have tasted aged wines from vintages within the past 10–20 years, if you can afford to spend over $100 per bottle or know someone who allowed you to share in a tasting on a very special occasion. But how many of you have experienced a tasting of wines 30 to over 100 years old? How many have purchased wines or cases of wine that sell at auction for $20,000 per bottle or more? How many of you have cellars that contain tens of thousands of bottles of wine and are looking to buy more?

The Billionaire’s Vinegar is a visit to the rarefied world of serious wine collecting, vertical and horizontal tastings of old wines, high priced auctions, vast fortunes and the egos that go with them, and the trust one must have in the winery, the various middlemen and the ultimate seller.

The author has chronicled a twenty-year mystery into the purchase of a 1787 bottle of Chateau Lafite Bordeaux, one of many found in a Paris cellar that were purportedly owned by Thomas Jefferson. It sold in 1985 for $156,000—the world’s most expensive bottle of wine. The spirited bidding between Marvin Shankin, owner of Wine Spectator magazine, and Kip Forbes, son of billionaire Malcolm Forbes, was managed by Michael Broadbent, a recognized wine authority and auctioneer at Christie’s in London.

What follows is a journey into mystery. Was there a connection to these wine discoveries that involved the Nazi occupation of France and individuals responsible? How can the age of wine or its origin or terroir be determined? What did the fledgling research of DNA and forensic testing reveal and how much would this cost? Was this a well-orchestrated con and if so, how could the individuals circulate among the rich and famous for all these years?

This is a suspenseful work of nonfiction by a knowledgeable writer and a detailed glimpse of wine snobbery at its extreme. You can put it on your wish list for the holidays or borrow my copy.

The Billionaire’s Vinegar is published by Crowne Publishers, New York, 2008, 319p. ISBN 978-0-307-33877-8 $24.95.