Does the Dog Die? A Brief Review of The Billionaire’s Vinegar, by Benjamin Wallace

This is a story about wishful thinking, and people who have more money than sense – it’s the story of how people who wanted bragging rights for having the “most special” bottle of wine were conned by the Bernie Madoff of wine purveyors, a German by the name of Hardy Rodenstock.

Hardy fooled almost everyone, because those who could afford to spend $150,000 and up on a single bottle of wine wanted to believe that 200 years after the fact, he’d discovered a “secret stash” of perfectly kept wines that had been in Thomas Jefferson’s Paris collection. And like most con artists, Hardy wasn’t satisfied with the first big fraud. He kept “finding” things, and selling them to eager collectors who would then take their over-priced treasures to wine tastings where the point wasn’t so much to find good wines as to show off.

I know something about wine. I’ve had a few well-aged Ports and Sauternes. And it’s a pleasure. But these people turned it into a competition. Not that I’m criticizing, but it became clear from Wallace’s well-crafted story that, for most of these wine buyers, the price tags on the bottles mattered as much as the taste of the contents. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

The Billionaire’s Vinegar doesn’t so much chase down Hardy Rodenstock as it explores the world of obsessed wine collectors. A bottle of 1787 Chateau Lafite Bordeau sets the story in motion, and gives Wallace an opportunity to discern the why and how of the rare-wine collecting subculture. The fact that Hardy Rodenstock was elusive and hard to pin down in his fraudulent activities just adds more depth to the story. This was a riveting story, and I highly recommend the book.

As for animal lovers, there’s nothing to worry about here. I do not recall a single animal making an appearance in this book, which means it is 100% SAFE for animal lovers. Enjoy — preferably with a glass of “the bargain of the week” from your favorite wine merchant.

Wine and Your Taste Buds

This morning’s Washington Post had an interesting article about how people’s taste buds steer them to prefer different types of wine. Which Wine Drinker Are You? explains how we fall into four categories of wine drinker: sweet, hypersensitive, sensitive, and tolerant. By going to the website of The Budometer and answering a few simple questions, your “profile” emerges.

This is most useful for inexperienced or overwhelmed wine drinkers, because over time and with experience, our tastes tend to broaden. I read the types of wines preferred by members of each category and liked everything except the sweet wines. I thought I would probably fall into the Sensitive category even though, like Tolerants, I have a pretty strong preference for red wine. Most women are Sensitive or Hypersensitive as well. However, the questionnaire establishes me as a solid Tolerant.

This taste-typing is in the early stages, and a more refined questionnaire is in the works. But if you drink wine at all, you’ll probably find The Budometer of interest even in this Beta version.

Enjoy!

Three Meals and a Bottle of Wine

I believe in cooking for one. I have never understood people who short-change themselves because they’re alone for dinner. If I am by myself, I deserve a good meal as much as if Dave is here or I have a house full of people. It takes a different kind of planning, but it’s not rocket science.

When Dave and I were weathered in, I doubled up meals I normally make for myself. Scrambled eggs with Monterey jack cheese for breakfast? That’s a no-brainer. For lunch, I made the Buffalo Chicken Cornbread I mentioned in a previous post. That recipe originated with Cast Iron Cooking for Dummies, which I still check before heading into the kitchen. But I’ve made that one my own already.

For dinner, I made gnudi. I can’t find a link to the recipe I use, but this one sounds good http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/236878 and I may try it next time. I love gnudi, and I was somewhat disappointed that cooking a “double” batch  from my usual single serving seemed to not work as well. It may have been a matter of an overcrowded pot. In any case, the gnudi weren’t as firm as usual. But they were still good.

I broke out a bottle of prosecco, an Italian sparkling wine (not champagne, if you go along with the French on that). It wasn’t as interesting as champagne or California sparkling wines, but it was pleasant enough. What was interesting was that we didn’t feel as if we’d had much to drink at all, yet the prosecco had an alcohol content of 11%.

Good Wine

On impulse in Trader Joe’s last week, I bought a bottle of the 2003 Montecillo Rioja. I am very happy with this choice — it proved to be a good table wine to accompany casual dining at home. It was better on the second and third nights, but that’s fine. I hate feeling like my only choices are to drink more than I want to or to let a good wine go bad. There was no risk of that with this gentle Spanish wine.

I’m not sure I’ve ever had a bad Rioja. I find them to be reliable and reasonably priced.