Excellent An excursion into the upper reaches of fine wine $156,000 for a Bottle of Wine? by RaymondJohn Be glad you're not filthy rich

Category:  Essay Non-Fiction   Posted:  June 24, 2008      Views: 562

RAYMONDJOHN  IN PRINT   ABOUT RAYMONDJOHN  Raymond John is a hopeless FanStory addict who has at times spent as many as twelve hours in a single day reading, reviewing and writing for the site. His three purposes are based on three "Es" which are Explain, Enlighten and Entertain. His greatest fear is to take himself too seriously. He may not always smile, but he always has a twinkle in his eye. Knock his socks off with a fantastic write and he'll be your best cheerleader and give you a banner award, to boot. He has written two novels and numerous short works. His first book, The Cellini Masterpiece, has sold nearly 3,000 copies and received an Honorable Mention in the 2006 IPPY awards. It is now available in a Kindle edition from Amazon.com. An audio version (ISBN 9780615268125) is now available read by the renown actor, James Cada. MP3 edition, downloadable for IPOD, is 14.95. Order at www.raymondjohnbooks.com. His second mystery, Mix and Match Murder, which was originally scheduled for release in September of 2008 is now in print and available from Amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com and North Star Press. A scholar born in the golden age of radio, Raymond always appreciates hearing a well-told story, especially one with action and believable dialogue in a historical setting. I have written and received many reviews. I have a thick skin, so if constructive criticism is forthcoming, bring it on. He has won several contests. The contest submission Mousie, Kittie and Booger was the first place winner in the contest Tales of the Weird.. Gold In Them Thar Words was the first place winner in the contest Tales of the Weird.. Lot 386 was the first place winner in the contest Tales of the Weird.. He is a top ranked author and is currently holding the #22 position. Portfolio | Become A Fan Ever hear of "the noble rot"? Do you know what phylloxera means? Can you explain the difference between a horizontal and a vertical? If so, you may be an oenologist, or at least someone who is conversant with wines. Benjamin Wallace's new book, The Billionaire's Vinegar, will tell you all you need to know, and then some, about how to become a wine snob. It's also a textbook for someone with knowledge and ingenuity to become rich by exploiting the foibles of the unconscionably wealthy. In 1985, a bottle of wine allegedly owned by Thomas Jefferson, sold on Christie's auction floor for $156,000. The price was a combination of the historical importance of the bottle offered, the auctioneer's reputation as the world's greatest wine authority, the believability of a noted source of rare wines, and the collector's passion to have the bragging rights of owning one of the world's most expensive bottles of wine. As Wallace explains, the bottle was supposedly first bought by Thomas Jefferson. Not only was Mr. Jefferson our third president, he was our first wine connoisseur. He also was a meticulous record keeper, maintaining detailed journals of all his purchases. Fine, you may say. The bottle was one of the items on the list. Only it wasn't, or not specifically. The bottle was a 1787 Chateau LaFite Bourdeaux, and there was no mention of that vintage in Jefferson's records. Even a non-expert would probably smell a rat. So how could the world's greatest wine expert, Michael Broadbent, be taken in? Well, as in nearly all lists, there were shipments that fell into the category of "miscellaneous purchases." In this case, the bottle could have been included in a shipment that arrived in Monticello just before Christmas of 1789 and notated as "a box of assorted wines." This doesn't prove the authenticity of the wine, but it does allow for the possibility it was genuine. Starting from that point, the determination becomes the province of the expert. As was mentioned, Michael Broadbent was the world's top authority on wines. By the mid 1980s he could claim he had tasted more than 40,000 wines of the world. He started his rise to fame by selling his stamp collection as a young man and using the proceeds to pay his living expenses while working at a wine shop. His boss recommended that he take notes on the wines he had tasted. Soon the lists filled several notebooks. He also rose to be the sales manager of Bristol's. In 1966, Christie's announced they were going to begin to auction wines. Broadbent got the job as head of the department. The first year, the auction house had sales of $600,000. In 1978, nearly five million. Broadbent's expertise and growing reputation as the world's leading authority on rare wines were the main reason for the rise. Five million dollars was just the beginning. Even better times still lay ahead. The golden age of the 'eighties was just around the corner. So how did this expert decide the bottle offered was actually from Jefferson's wine cellar? The answer is more complicated than you may think. Though very much the dilettante, Broadbent was meticulously honest. As the world's greatest expert, he belonged to an exclusive circle of wine experts, attending thousands of wine tastings. Everyone who was anyone in the wine world put them on, showing off their rarities in vertical and horizontal tastings. Verticals were wines from the same estate for varying years; horizontals featured a wide assortment of wines for the same year. The circle of connoisseurs was very wealthy, and also very small. One of the most popular members was Hardy Rodenstock, a rather mysterious Dutchman who had an uncanny knack for turning up rare wines from undisclosed sources. Some wines are rare just for their vintage and desirability. Some for the way they are bottled. Vintners don't just put out one size of bottle, they also distribute larger ones with colorful names like Jereboams and Nebuchednezzars, multiples of the more common singles. Rodenstock regularly turned up rare wines in these larger bottles. Often, they were the only ones known. For this reason, he quickly became one of Christie's main sources for their rare wine sales. When the Dutchman consigned the Jefferson, Broadbent had no reason to suspect its authenticity. Even so, the man was no fool. He had two problems. The only way to know for sure that the wine was of the right vintage would be to open it and taste it. To do this would make it unsalable for auction. Even if it were possible to determine the vintage, it still wouldn't prove it was from Thomas Jefferson's stock. The only reason to believe it was came from the soft evidence: the initials Th. J. engraved on the bottle. The bottle itself appeared to be from the right time period, the label looked authentic, the cork was sealed properly, and most important of all, it came from Rodenstock. Broadbent decided to offer the bottle as is, with an ambiguous description. The auction catalogue read "1787 Chateau La Fite Bordeaux with the initials Th. J. engraved on the bottle front. May have belonged to Thomas Jefferson." The broad description would save Christie's some headaches if it later turned out Jefferson hadn't owned it. At the same time, it guaranteed a high price just by being included in a rare wine auction. It never would have been included if Broadbent didn't consider it genuine. Christies was right. One of the world's leading collectors had determined he wanted it, and had decided to go as high as fifteen thousand dollars, a record price for a wine. Unfortunately, a representative of Malcolm Forbes was on the floor at the same time. Forbes wanted the bottle for a Jefferson exhibit, and he intended to buy it, hang the price. His agent was given a "buy" bid, but not for "a ridiculously high price." This, as anyone familiar with the auction trade knows, was a blatant contradiction in terms. The fifteen thousand dollar limit the collector had placed on himself was soon passed. Forgetting his restraints, he bid on. As the price rose ever higher, Forbes' representative squirmed more uncomfortably in his seat. He was sure the multi-millionaire would be unhappy if the price got too high, but he also sensed that Forbes would be unhappier still if he didn't win it. The conditions were perfect for a new high price. The dollar was at its peak against the pound, and most important of all, two people wanted the lot. In the auction business, two is the magic number. And when the two are extremely rich, anything can happen. Though sweating profusely, Forbes' agent's hand was still up when the bottle finally sold. He had been right. Forbes was furious, but, as the unfortunate agent later learned, he would have been more furious still if he left the floor empty-handed. The billionaire's vinegar had a first class seat on its jet trip to America. An armoured car met it and carried it to the exhibition hall. Forbes placed it in its anointed seat and all seemed to be right in the world. Unfortunately, it wasn't. Wine has to be kept within certain temperature limits. The bottle has to be laid on its side to ensure the cork remains moist. Furthermore, it shouldn't be moved frequently. The fragility of the bottle and cork required delicate treatment. Forbes' exhibit insured that none of these conditions were met. The wine was subjected to heat, it was kept upright, and it got moved around as often as the exhibit was moved. What you expected might happen finally did. Disaster struck. The cork dislodged and fell into the bottle. The wine began to oxidize, and Christie's would no longer have to worry about a return. That's probably where the story would have ended if it weren't for the fact that an identical bottle from the same stock appeared and was offered privately. The buyer, another famous collector, was going to open it at a gala event. As luck would have it, it broke before he could open it. Humiliated, the collector saved what was left of the bottle, its label and cork. The wine itself remained in the collector's pocket and on the floor of the ballroom. Suddenly, questions began to arise about the authenticity of the wine. Experts at Williamsburg, who hadn't been contacted to pass on the first bottle offered, said they had seen and handled several bottles from Jefferson's collection. They had never seen Th. J. on any of his bottles before. The label from the broken bottle could be dated and analyzed. The broken bottle could be subjected to forensic analysis. Even so, the proof of the pudding had been lost forever. No one knew how the wine in the bottle tasted. The questions, even if answered favorably, would do nothing for Broadbent's reputation. Some of the wines that Rodenstock had consigned were opened and tasted, and didn't quite measure up to the descriptions in Broadbent's notes. A 1832 Chateau Yquem was supposed to have the delicate taste of plums and a nose of chocolate--not the actual quote--but it wasn't supposed to taste like raspberries. Chateau Yquem, by the way, is the gold standard of Sauternes. "The noble rot" is the result of a tiny mite that infected the vines, making the grapes shrink to the size of raisins, and consequently very difficult to press. It is the wine connoisseur's nectar of the gods. More questions arose. The cork was from the correct time period, but the wine that had soaked into didn't seem to correspond to the chemical constituency of what the wine should have been. Moreover, the label was from the right time period, but the printing was a font that wasn't used until a much later date. Little by little, Rodenstock's reputation became more and more suspect. And so did Broadbent'a. Buyers began to worry about the authenticity of other wines they bought at Christie's sales. Broadbent questioned Rodenstock more closely about his sources, but never got more than a vague reference to an undisclosed cellar. Suspicions became contagious. Rodenstock's actions at the tastings suddenly came under scrutiny. He had kept the bottles and the corks after the wine was decanted. Some of the labels of the rarer dates had smudged printings or were partially missing. For Broadbent, and Christies, London Bridge seemed to be falling down. How does the story end? Rather indecisively, I'm afraid. Broadbent kept his reputation, though it wasn't quite as sparkling as it once had been. Rodenstock disappeared into the woodwork. More intensive investigation of his background showed there never was such a person. The dashing young Hollander who once was the toast of the wine world essentially disappeared. Malcolm Forbes still has his bottle, though now empty. And the man who broke his bottle? He was lucky enough to get a partial refund. The wine world will never again be the same. Recognized Share your own writing! - Information on our membership for writers. Author Notes This is a condensed version of the story in Wallace's book. Anyone who enjoys a good read will find The Billionaire's Vinegar a very enjoyable book. Pays one point and 2 member cents.

© Copyright 2010 RaymondJohn All rights reserved. RaymondJohn has granted FanStory.com, its affiliates and its syndicates non-exclusive rights to display this work.