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The Billionaire's Vinegar: The Mystery of the World's Most Expensive Bottle of Wine

By: Benjamin Wallace
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group, Division of Random House Inc
ISBN: 0307338770
ISBN-13: 9780307338778
Released: 29 Aug 2008
RRP: £14.99
Average Rating:

Customer Reviews

When Money Isn't Enough - By: Francis J. Mcinerney, 13 May 2008
Mr. Walllace has produced a great read that is interesting from a historical prospective while it harpoons the very wealthy whose pursuit of money is no longer satisfying. Nope, these folks have to pursue a type of collectable that they cannot have any provenance for, which experts in the field can only hope to guess at what the bottle contains. Wine that is a century younger than the bottle on the book cover might at best be "recognizable as wine", unless of course it has become an ingredient for salad dressing.

The central charlatan in this tale is a master at exploiting the wishes of collectors & even the experts that should know better. Or perhaps that do know better & just let their own egos persuade them that in spite of zero evidence the product is real, & worse, valid sources that explain there is nothing to suggest the wine's legitimacy, never slow down. On with the auction!

The book is not just about human nature & its dimmer moments, there is a great deal of information on wine production, wine history & enough wine tasting descriptions for the most avid connoisseur. Or if you find the whole field a bit pretentious & tedious you might still be entertained by the likes of what follows "the art of drinking the very oldest rarities required an extra degree of connoisseurship-almost a kind of necrophilia".

I look forward to many more from the pen of Mr. Walllace. This is a very good offering that should find a wide audience whether you are an avid wine drinker or you feel the 18th Amendment was a great idea.