Benjamin Wallace - The Billionaire's Vinegar

“They don’t exist now” “Taking time to talk and taste,” Baltimore Sun, December 4, 2002.

“an incorrigible hypemeister” “The Adventures of an Incorrigible Hypemeister in the Wine Trade,” New York Observer, November 21, 1994.

wrote to thank the editor “Hype Is Ripe,” New York Observer, November 28, 1994.

found wines recorked… to be subpar John Tilson, “Another View,” Rarities 1, no. 1 (First Quarter, 1991).

“It would positively have killed Bill Sokolin” William F. Buckley, Jr., Miles Gone By (Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, 2004), 43–5.

$394,000… $519,750 “Wine Is Spilt; Some Tears Ensue,” NYT, April 26, 1989.

a quarter of all Pétrus “How Château Pétrus Became Bordeaux’s Most Coveted Wine,” WS, February 15, 1991.

half of the production of the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti “Beware of Bogus DRC Bottles,” WS, November 30, 1990.

Forty minutes into Sokolin’s birthday “Wine Is Spilt…,” NYT, April 26, 1989.

“What a Plonker!” Daily Star, April 26, 1989.

“It’s a pleasant stain” “Matt,” Daily Telegraph, date unknown.

“looked like chocolate-brown goo” “Oops! A New York Wine Merchant Turns a 1787 Château Margaux Into the World’s Most Expensive Puddle,” People, May 15, 1989.

“worth maybe $10 million” “Case of the Broken Bottle,” WS, date unknown.

“what it is to be a William Sokolin” “Some Special Occasion,” NYT, April 27, 1989.

the wine to be drunk at his funeral “Old Wine in New Glasses,” WS, December 15, 1999.

When Thomas Jefferson was alive “A Brief History of Glass,” WS, November 30, 1992.

they got rid of all their old glasses “Old Wine in New Glasses,” WS, December 15, 1999.

“The palate recognised a heroic wine” H. Warner Allen, The Romance of Wine (New York: Dover, 1971), 45.

Rodenstock went so far as to suggest Richard Olney, Yquem (Boston: Godine, 1986), 144.

a Taiwanese company “The World’s Wildest Collector,” WS, December 15, 1988.

The publicity from the Forbes sale “Jefferson’s Paris Wines: Comparing the Questions with the Facts,” VWGJ, Spring 1986.

an Yquem he said he had obtained in Leningrad “Ein Sammler Shreibt Weingeschichte,” Falstaff no. 3, 1988.

“The rarest of all these rarities” Jancis Robinson, Tasting Pleasure (New York: Penguin, 1999), 180.

“these glasses of unctuous history” Ibid., 181.

Rodenstock spoke of a confederate “The World’s Wildest Collector,” WS, December 15, 1988.

He told friends that he had found another trove Ibid.

“similar powers of discovery to water diviners” Edmund Penning-Rowsell, The Wines of Bordeaux (London: Penguin, 1989), 190.

a tax exile “Germans call for tax on the big spenders,” Sunday Times (London), August 8, 1999.

the regional railway director “The World’s Wildest Collector,” WS, December 15, 1988.

“the youngest such person” “Ein Sammler…,” Falstaff no. 3, 1988.

Rodenstock was a Sagittarius Ibid.

blank checks…“all hell is breaking loose on my palate” “Mann, da ist im Gaumen die Hölle los,” Der Spiegel, no. 7, 1988.

a fortieth-birthday gift “Verborgene Keller,” Der Spiegel, October 28, 1991.

“grand occasion wines” “Six of the Best,” Decanter, December 1989.

Peppercorn agreed with her “‘Vintage’ wine,” The Times (of London), December 15, 1990.

drinking 1964 Lanson Champagne Jancis Robinson, Tasting Pleasure (New York: Penguin, 1999), 181.

“horror machine” “Eisiger Schock,” Der Spiegel, no. 42, 1988.

snarled to his diary Albert Givton, Carte Blanche (Vancouver: Turnagain Enterprises, 1999), 55.

“a built-in preference for the obvious” Quoted from May 1987 Decanter in “Buying by Numbers,” Decanter, October 1987.

Givton was suspicous… “He seems too sleek” Givton, Carte Blanche, 111.

Troy was certain… that the wine was a fake Geoffrey Troy, “Another View,” Rarities 1, no. 1 (First Quarter, 1991).

Among the bottles… were two from Rodenstock “Tasting 44 Years of Elegance,” WS, January 31, 1988.

“vanilla-chocolate-mint aroma” Edward M. Lazarus, “A Taste of History… or the Stench of Fraud?” Rarities 1, no. 1 (First Quarter, 1991).

his Venezuelan haul “Michael Broadbent’s Tasting Notes,” Decanter, October 1987.

struck many participants as atypical Bipin Desai, “Another View,” Rarities 1, no. 1 (First Quarter, 1991).

“a complete fraud” “A Taste of Deception,” WS, May 31, 1998.

Rodenstock, put on the spot Desai, “Another View,” Rarities 1, no. 1 (First Quarter, 1991).

auction house subsequently reported “Editor’s note,” Rarities 1, no. 1 (First Quarter, 1991).

Rodenstock said he had made a mistake Desai, “Reply to the Editor’s note on Hardy Rodenstock’s 1905 Ch. Figeac,” Rarities 1, no. 2 (Second Quarter, 1991).

an assemblage of Pétrus “A Taste of History…,” Rarities 1, no. 1 (First Quarter, 1991).

old merchants’ catalogs “A Taste of Deception,” WS, May 31, 1998.

argued that all the skeptics Ibid.

“stupid assertion[s]” Fax from Rodenstock to author, July 22, 2005.

three pre-phylloxera vintages Lazarus, “A Taste of History…,” Rarities 1, no. 1 (First Quarter, 1991).

Four experienced tasters thought “Seemingly Ageless Latour Sparks Controversy,” WS, March 31, 1990.

The tasting notes of Givton “A Taste of History…,” Rarities 1, no. 1 (First Quarter, 1991).

“a Rolex bought in Hong Kong” “Seemingly Ageless Latour…,” WS, March 31, 1990.

“What are we to conclude from all this?” “A Taste of History…,” Rarities 1, no. 1 (First Quarter, 1991).

a recipe for how to fake Geoffrey Troy, “Another View,” Rarities 1, no. 1 (First Quarter, 1991).

Broadbent defended the German “Michael Broadbent of Christie’s Writes,” Rarities 1, no. 2 (Second Quarter, 1991).

“rarity following a burglary at the château” “Fine wine prices remain firm,” Decanter, December 1987.

“red wine believed to have belonged to Julius Caesar” “Record Price for Caesar Bottle,” WS, April 1, 1989.

June 28, 1990, sale at Christie’s London “’61 Bordeaux Still Tops in London,” WS, August 31, 1990.

“He became Molyneux-Berry when he went to Sotheby’s” Molyneux-Berry says that he has always been called Molyneux-Berry.

Frericks had paid only “Streit um alte Flaschen,” Stern, April 18, 1991.