The Billionaire’s Vinegar tells the true story of a 1787 Château Lafite Bordeaux—supposedly Thomas Jefferson’s—that sold for $156,000 at auction, and the eccentrics who intersected with it. Was it truly entombed in a Paris cellar for two hundred years? Or did it come from a secret Nazi bunker? Or from the moldy basement of a devilishly brilliant con artist?

As Benjamin Wallace unravels the mystery, we meet a gallery of intriguing players—from Michael Broadbent, the bicycle-riding British auctioneer who speaks of wines as if they are women; to Serena Sutcliffe, Broadbent’s elegant archrival at Sotheby’s; to Hardy Rodenstock, the obsessive wine collector who discovered the bottle; to Bill Koch, the Florida tycoon who is bent on exposing the truth about Rodenstock.



"Splendid... A delicious mystery that winds through musty European cellars, Jefferson-era France and Monticello, engravers' shops, a nuclear physics lab, rival auction houses, and legendary multiday tastings." —USA Today

"Captivating." –Wall Street Journal

“One of the rare books on wine that transcends the genre…I hope the movie is as good as the book.” -New York Times

“Entertaining.” —Washington Post

“A riveting wine history, wine mystery, and more.” –Food & Wine

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