Fake News or Calls for Speculation? You Decide.

A drama both on and off stage, someone has some explaining to do.

Can you imagine spending $156,000 on a bottle of wine THAT MIGHT BE A FRAUD!? Excuse me? Shouldn't they have caught on sooner if there is such a close-knit circle of people who love rare older wines? But then again, how many people can access a 1787 Chateau Lafite Bordeaux…

         Based on the very true events of the scandalous outrage during the 1980s of rare wine disparities, The Billionaire’s Vinegar written by Benjamin Wallace recounts the announcement of wine bottles linked to Thomas Jefferson being up for auction by Christie's Auction House in London.

Of course, Kip Forbes (as in THE Forbes family) must get that bottle for the Thomas Jefferson exhibit, it would be perfect! But Marvin Shaken, the owner of Wine Spectator, also wants the bottle to celebrate life and all things wine. So why are the Forbes here anyway? He wonders. They have no interest in wine whatsoever, they're only here to throw their money around because they can.

And then there’s Michael Broadbent, the tomb raider of wines himself. A sales director of Christie’s until 1992, and a published writer and judge of wine competitions, he’s always at the right place at the right time…. every time. His partner, Hardy Rodenstock, also has a knack for finding old wines and arranging extravagant wine tastings charging over $1,000 per invitation. He is so good at finding old wines that he was the one to receive the phone call that bottles were found in Paris with the engraving “Th.J” on them.

So, was this fraud? Or was Broadbent embarrassed? After all, Broadbent did support Rodenstock and put his name on the map after this historic auction. It was only after I did some digging around that this book is “not for sale in the UK and Ireland". It turns out Broadbent sued Random House, the publisher of this book, for defamation!

The tension is relentless but the drama AFTER is even better! The best way to pair this spicey book is with a sweet wine. Something with nice acidity to keep it fresh but sweet enough to keep the tea spilling. Wolffer Summer in a Bottle Cotes de Provence Rose 2022 is perfect! This poolside wine sensationally amplifies the intense allegations of pre-phylloxera fraud costing upwards of almost $1 million that simultaneously almost destroyed the lifelong credibility of a man.

Speaking of phylloxera, the son of a bug disaster, did you know that Europe had to import American based wine roots to stop the destruction of their wine reserves? Yeah. During the 1800s, Europe had such a bad infestation of phylloxera, a microscopic yellow bug, that America had to send a portion of the reserves dating from the settlers back to Europe. However, these reserves were grafted with an American root because it oozed sap that clogged the nymphs' mouths. Neat but gross...

If you want to follow on our journey be on the lookout for our next book list publishing soon!

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