The Story of The Billionaire's Vinegar - Part 1

Picture the scene. Christie's auction house, London, December 1985. A dapper auctioneer is expertly tantalising the stellar audience with a bottle of 1787 Chateau Lafite engraved with the initials of US founding father Thomas Jefferson. It duly becomes the most expensive bottle of wine ever sold, going for £105,000 ($156,000). But it's what happens next that is the really intriguing bit... Welcome to a new kind of narrative Wine Blast episode, where we're joined by best-selling author Benjamin Wallace , whose book The Billionaire's Vinegar is the inspiration for this compelling story. He brings to life the key protagonists, from Jefferson to Christie's auctioneer Michael Broadbent, US billionaire Bill Koch and German wine collector Hardy Rodenstock. All the while building the rich and eye-opening plot around what he calls, 'the mystery of the world's most expensive bottle of wine.' And as for how the 'vinegar' comes into the story...you'll just have to listen to find out. And in the next and concluding part, we hear how the story ends - including what's happened since the book was published. Don't miss it! Thanks for tuning in. We love to hear from you so please do get in touch! Send us a voice message via Speakpipe . Or you can find all details from this episode on our website: Show notes for Wine Blast S7 E6 - The Story of The Billionaire's Vinegar: Part 1 To get early access to all episodes, full archive access to our back catalogue and exclusive occasional bonus content,

You can listen to The Story of The Billionaire's Vinegar - Part 1 online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

The Story of The Billionaire's Vinegar - Part 1 is an episode from Wine Blast with Susie and Peter by Susie and Peter, Masters of Wine.

This episode is 35:03 long.

This episode was published on Oct 19, 2025.

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