Benjamin Wallace - The Billionaire's Vinegar

On September 17, 1789, Jefferson hosted Gouverneur Morris, A Diary of the French Revolution, edited by Beatrix Cary Davenport (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1939), vol. 1, 219–23.

chilly out… a fire crackled Ibid., 221.

a spare, half-empty look Adams, The Paris Years of Thomas Jefferson, 21.

much of the contents had already been crated Ibid.

what he thought would be a six-month leave Ibid., 22.

guards be posted outside Rice, Thomas Jefferson’s Paris, 117.

his house had been robbed Ibid.

candlesticks Adams, The Paris Years of Thomas Jefferson, 291.

sat down to eat at four-thirty Morris, A Diary of the French Revolution, vol. 1, 219–23.

James Hemings had learned French cooking Rice, Thomas Jefferson’s Paris, 40.

eighty-six packing cases Rice, Thomas Jefferson’s Paris, 122.

hampers full of various wines “List of Baggage Shipped by Jefferson from France,” Papers XV, 375–77.

two containers earmarked for John Jay and George Washington Letter from TJ to John Jay, September 17, 1789, Papers XV, 436–37.

Gouverneur Morris bet William Short George Green Shackelford, Jefferson’s Adoptive Son (Lexington, Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky, 1993), 43.

majordomo was left to dismantle Letter from TJ to William Short, March 12, 1790, Papers XVI, 228–30.

Amid the growing chaos Letter from William Short to TJ, August 15, 1790, Papers XVII, 392–97.

One hundred twenty-five bottles of 1784 Haut-Brion Letter from John Bondfield to TJ, xber 6, 1788, Papers XIV, 336–37.

never arrived Letter from TJ to John Bondfield, May 17, 1788, Papers XIII, 171–72.

short one box of assorted wines Letter from TJ to James Brown, January 3, 1790, cited in Hailman, Thomas Jefferson on Wine, 202.

Michael Broadbent vividly recounted the story of his first big auction in “The Anatomy of a Sale,” in Christie’s Wine Companion, edited by Patrick Matthews (Topsfield, Massachusetts: Salem House Publishers, 1987), 121–31. Four key sources on the development of the Bordeaux wine trade, and of English claret drinking, were Nicholas Faith’s Winemasters; Hugh Johnson’s Story of Wine; Edmund Penning-Rowsell’s book The Wines of Bordeaux (London: Penguin, 1989) and his article “The First Growths of Bordeaux,” published in the 1987 Christie’s Wine Companion. A useful article on the history of Christie’s and wine auctions was JMB’s “A Brief History of Wine Auctions,” VWGJ, Fall 1986.

seventy gallons to an acre Robert M. Parker, Jr., The World’s Greatest Wine Estates (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005), 132, 214.

just one glass of Yquem Richard Olney, Yquem (Boston: David R. Godine, 1986), 35.

20,000 gold francs Ibid., 46.

Gladstone, himself a claret man Asa Briggs, Haut-Brion (London: Faber and Faber, 1994), 92.

Haut-Brion had only four hogsheads Letter from John Bondfield to TJ, xber 6, 1788, Papers XIV, 336–37.

“it admits of a doubt” Christopher Fielden, Is This the Wine You Ordered, Sir? (London: Christopher Helm, 1989), 124–25.

Disraeli Ray, Lafite, 65.

That first season “A Brief History of Wine Auctions,” VWGJ, Fall 1986.

By 1978 the numbers “The Wine Auction Market,” Christie’s Wine Review (1980), 12.

Before Christie’s Rosebery sale… launched its own wine department Loftus, Anatomy of the Wine Trade, 145–46.

the price of old wines “The wine auction market—1966–1971,” Christie’s Wine Review (1972), 25.

“certainly the largest quantity of any one vintage” “Wine,” Art & Auction, February 1986.

“upwards of 100 loads of Good Hay” “Out-of-Town and Overseas Sales,” Christie’s Wine Review (1980), 35.

“sexy demi-mondaine” JMB, Vintage Wine (New York: Harcourt, 2002), 33.

“middle-aged lady” Ibid., 58.

“the strenuous efforts of our competitors” “Introduction,” Christie’s Wine Review (1979).

“pure propaganda” Loftus, Anatomy of the Wine Trade, 148.

“not a very healthy step ” “Changing Times,” Decanter, 1984.

“of infinitely better quality” “Premium Policy,” Decanter, August 1984.

“essentially a piece of ephemera” “Premium Fallacies,” Decanter, 1984 or 1985.

“Sepulchral hollow laughter” “The Last Laugh,” Decanter, August 1986.

“The lack of enthusiasm shows” “In Britain It’s All Business,” WS, May 31, 1988.

Sotheby’s was the quality auctioneer Ibid.

“the largest quantity [of cases of port]” “Port Prices Show Gains,” Decanter, 1984.

A magnum of 1864 Lafite “Time in a Bottle,” Connoisseur, February 1992.

American demand was the chief reason “Wine,” Financial Times, August 17, 1985.

Before leaving France in 1789, Jefferson shipped Letter from TJ to John Jay, September 17, 1789, Papers XV, 436–7.

As secretary of state, Jefferson Letter from TJ to Joseph Fenwick, September 6, 1790, Papers XVII, 493–94.

Jefferson’s congratulatory letter Letter from TJ to James Monroe, April 8, 1817, Library of Congress collection.

“No nation is drunken” Letter from TJ to J. G. Hyde de Neuville, December 13, 1818, Library of Congress collection.

who regarded Jefferson as a fop John Hailman, Thomas Jefferson on Wine (University Press of Mississippi, 2006), 213.

“We could… make as great a variety of wines” Letter from TJ to Lasteyrie, July 15, 1808, Library of Congress collection.

Jefferson claimed, patriotically Letter from TJ to John Adlum, October 7, 1809, Papers, Retirement Series I, 586–57.

America’s first “exquisite wine, produced in quantity” Letter from TJ to William Johnson, May 10, 1817, Library of Congress collection.

“There was, as usual, the dissertation upon wines” David McCullough, John Adams (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001), 587.

three to four and a half glasses of wine Letter from TJ to Vine Utley, March 21, 1819, Library of Congress collection.

His sizable library included “The Wine Books in Jefferson’s Library,” Wayward Tendrils Quarterly 11, no. 2 (April 2001).

“wine from long habit has become” Letter from TJ to Fernandez Oliviera, December 16, 1815, Library of Congress collection.

By the turn of the twentieth century Peter Meltzer, “America Collects,” Christie’s Wine Companion (1987).

the 1959 vintage Kathleen Bourke, “Rise of the American Connoisseur,” Christie’s Wine Review, 1976.

The debut Heublein auction JMB, “Heublein and the US Wine Auction Scene,” Christie’s Wine Companion, edited by Pamela Vandyke Price (Devon, England: Webb & Bower, 1989).

$31,000… $38,000 “‘It Doesn’t Make Sense,’” WS, January 1986.

110 degrees Fahrenheit JMB, “Heublein and the US Wine Auction Scene,” Christie’s Wine Companion, 1989.