In this episode, we dive into the captivating tale of the Thomas Jefferson bottle scandal, where a hidden cache of wine bottles claimed to be once owned by the founding father ignited a frenzy in the wine community. The story begins in 1784 with Jefferson’s obsession with fine wines in France and culminates in 1985 when a German wine dealer discovers mysterious bottles etched with the initials 'T.J.' that are believed to have belonged to Jefferson.
However, as American billionaire Bill Koch seeks to authenticate these wines for display, the truth unravels. Investigations reveal the engravings were made with modern tools, leading to a shocking conclusion about the authenticity of the bottles. This episode uncovers the layers of deception, the pursuit of provenance, and the ultimate realization that the greatest presidential wine collection might never have existed at all.
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Every bottle has a front label, that's the story they want you to know.
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The back label is the story they didn't.
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This is the back label, a story that gives you the full pour.
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The year is 1784, Thomas Jefferson has just helped write the Declaration of Independence.
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He has served as governor of Virginia, is about to become the third president of the
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But right now, he is standing in a vineyard in Bordeaux, France.
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And he is completely obsessed.
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Jefferson had arrived in Paris as America's minister to France, and within weeks, the
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man who helped build a nation had a new mission, wine.
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He toured the great Chateau of Burgundy.
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He walked the rows of Bordeaux.
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He tasted wines so old, so extraordinary, that he wrote home about them the way other
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men wrote about falling in love.
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He ordered 250 bottles of Chateau Lafitte.
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He shipped sauternes and champagne to George Washington himself.
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He stocked the White House cellar.
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He advised Adams, Madison, Monroe, all of them on what to pour at state dinners.
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Over three decades, Jefferson's personal records show he purchased 20,000 bottles of wine.
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The man had a problem.
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Now, fast forward 200 years.
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A building in the Marais district is being renovated.
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Workers knock down a wall.
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Behind it, a hidden cellar.
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And inside that cellar, bottles, old bottles, dark glass, no labels, but etched into the
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glass in a spindly hand, a year, a Chateau, and two initials, T.J.
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The man who found them was a German music producer turned wine dealer named Hardy Rodenstock.
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He didn't say who had sold him the wines.
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He didn't reveal the address of the building.
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He didn't disclose exactly how many bottles he found, but he had a story, and the wine
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world desperately wanted to believe it.
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In 1985, Rodenstock electrified the wine world when he claimed to have discovered a
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cache of 18th century wines once owned by Thomas Jefferson.
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One bottle, a 1987 Chateau Lafitte, went to auction at Christie's in London.
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With auctioneer Michael Broadbent wielding the hammer, Malcolm Forbes bought it for $156,000.
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Still, to this day, the record price for a single bottle of wine.
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American billionaire Bill Koch saw that bottle sell.
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He had to have one.
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He tracked down four more T.J. bottles and bought them.
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Then in 2005, he decided to display them at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
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And that's when he made a phone call to Monticello, Jefferson's home in Virginia, to get the bottles
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Koch's staff approached the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello.
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The foundation's curator replied that based on Jefferson's records, they did not think
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the bottles had been in Jefferson's possession.
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Jefferson who kept obsessive, encyclopedic records of every bottle he ever bought had
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no record of these bottles, ever.
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Koch hired a former FBI agent to investigate.
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He hired forensics experts, and when they examined the initials etched into the glass,
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they concluded the engravings had been made with an electric power tool, which would not
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have been possible in the 18th century.
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Someone had faked Thomas Jefferson's initials with a Dremel drill.
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But here's the full pour.
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Koch spent over $35 million tracking down who sold him those bottles.
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He sued Rodenstock.
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He sued Christie's.
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He sued auction houses across two continents.
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Rodenstock, whose real name turned out to be Meiner D'Urchi, refused to set foot in
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an American courtroom.
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A judge ruled against him in absentia.
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He never paid a cent.
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Koch's investigators found a label forger in Germany who had crafted fake labels for
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Rodenstock for years, printing thousands of them.
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And the bottle that Malcolm Forbes paid $156,000 for?
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The one that started it all?
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Jefferson never lived anywhere near the Monterey District.
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When he was in Paris, the bottle had no label and no secure providence.
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The greatest presidential wine collection ever discovered never existed.
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Thomas Jefferson spent 30 years in a fortune he didn't have, chasing the perfect bottle
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Two centuries later, someone used his name to do exactly the same thing to everyone else.
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The front label never tells you that.
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Pour something good tonight, you've earned it.
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That is the back label story.
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