Hardy Rodenstock
Encyclopedia
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
and Schlager
Schlager
Schlager music is a style of popular music prevalent in Central and Northern Europe and the Balkans and also in France and Poland. In Portugal, it was adapted and became pimba music...
music in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and is a prominent wine
Wine
Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...
collector, connoisseur
Connoisseur
A connoisseur is a person who has a great deal of knowledge about the fine arts, cuisines, or an expert judge in matters of taste.Modern connoisseurship must be seen along with museums, art galleries and "the cult of originality"...
and trader, with a special interest in old and rare wines. He became famous for his allegedly uncanny ability to track down old and very rare wines, and for arranging extravagant wine tasting
Wine tasting
Wine tasting is the sensory examination and evaluation of wine. While the practice of wine tasting is as ancient as its production, a more formalized methodology has slowly become established from the 14th century onwards...
s featuring these wines. It has been alleged that Rodenstock is the perpetrator of an elaborate wine fraud
Wine fraud
Wine fraud is a form of fraud in which wines are sold to a customer illicitly, usually having the customer spend more money than the product is worth, or causing sickness due to harmful chemicals being mixed into the wine...
. In 1992, a German court found that Rodenstock had "knowingly offered adulterated wine" for sale. On appeal, the matter was settled out of court.
Rare wine tastings
From 1980, Rodenstock arranged annual high-profile wine tastings of old and rare wines from his collections to which he invited friends and other prominent people. The tastings would be weekend tastings held at gourmet restaurants, hotels and resorts, and featured huge quantities of wine at Rodenstock's expense. The participants included German celebritiesCelebrity
A celebrity, also referred to as a celeb in popular culture, is a person who has a prominent profile and commands a great degree of public fascination and influence in day-to-day media...
and later expanded to include some of the most prominent international wine critic
Critic
A critic is anyone who expresses a value judgement. Informally, criticism is a common aspect of all human expression and need not necessarily imply skilled or accurate expressions of judgement. Critical judgements, good or bad, may be positive , negative , or balanced...
s.
The most famous Rodenstock tasting was held from August 30 to September 5, 1998 at Hotel Königshof in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, when a tasting of 125 vintages of Château d'Yquem
Château d'Yquem
Château d'Yquem is a Premier Cru Supérieur wine from the Sauternes, Gironde region in the southern part of the Bordeaux vineyards known as Graves. In the Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855, Château d'Yquem was the only Sauternes given this rating, indicating its perceived superiority...
, the oldest of which were of the 1784 vintage, was held. Two 18th century, forty 19th century, and all released 20th century vintages of Château d'Yquem up to 1991 featured in this vertical tasting
Wine tasting
Wine tasting is the sensory examination and evaluation of wine. While the practice of wine tasting is as ancient as its production, a more formalized methodology has slowly become established from the 14th century onwards...
which was conducted over the course of a week. The week included five lunches, seven dinners, and over 175 other wines. It is most likely the most extensive Yquem tasting ever and it has been the subject of a book.
The exclusive nature of the wine selection featured at Rodenstock's tastings is indicated by the fact that Michael Broadbent
Michael Broadbent
John Michael Broadbent MW is a British wine critic, writer and auctioneer in a capacity as a Master of Wine...
, who is considered to be the world's leading authority on old wines, has tasted many of his rarest and oldest wines at Rodenstock's tastings, in particularly most 18th century wines he has tasted.
Other participants at his tastings included Jancis Robinson
Jancis Robinson
Jancis Mary Robinson OBE, MW is a British wine critic, journalist and editor of wine literature. She currently writes a weekly column for the Financial Times, and writes for her website jancisrobinson.com...
, Robert M. Parker, Jr.
Robert M. Parker, Jr.
Robert M. Parker, Jr. is a leading U.S. wine critic with an international influence. His wine ratings on a 100-point scale and his newsletter The Wine Advocate, with his particular stylistic preferences and notetaking vocabulary, have become very influential in American wine buying and are...
and the then-owner of Château d'Yquem, Alexandre de Lur-Saluces.
Sales at wine auctions
Provenance
Provenance, from the French provenir, "to come from", refers to the chronology of the ownership or location of an historical object. The term was originally mostly used for works of art, but is now used in similar senses in a wide range of fields, including science and computing...
. According to Rodenstock's own account, in spring 1985 he received a phone call about a discovery of old wine bottles in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. The bottles had been found in a walled-up old cellar, and were engraved
Engraving
Engraving is the practice of incising a design on to a hard, usually flat surface, by cutting grooves into it. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an intaglio printing plate, of copper or another metal, for printing...
with vintage years from the late 18th century. This had in itself been an interesting find for a collector of old wines, but the bottles were also engraved with the initials "Th. J.", which was taken as an indication that they had belonged to Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
. Jefferson was an active œnophile
Oenophilia
Oenophilia of wine ). An oenophile is a lover of wine. In the strictest sense, oenophilia describes a disciplined devotion to wine, accompanying strict traditions of consumption and appreciation. In a general sense however, oenophilia simply refers to the enjoyment of wine, often by laymen....
and wine collector, who spent much time in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
in the 1780s and whose interest in wine is well documented.
Later in the same year, on December 5, 1985, Rodenstock put one of the "Th. J." bottles up for auction at Christie's
Christie's
Christie's is an art business and a fine arts auction house.- History :The official company literature states that founder James Christie conducted the first sale in London, England, on 5 December 1766, and the earliest auction catalogue the company retains is from December 1766...
in London: a bottle of 1787 Château Lafite engraved "1787 Lafitte Th. J.". The auction catalogue simply listed the value as "inestimable", and it was sold for 105,000 pound sterling
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
, which as of 2007 still remains the worldwide auction record for a single bottle of wine. The buyer was Christopher Forbes
Christopher Forbes
Christopher "Kip" Forbes is Vice Chairman of the Forbes Publishing company. He attended St. Mark's School in Southborough, Massachusetts, and Princeton University....
, bidding against Marvin Shanken
Marvin Shanken
Marvin Ray Shanken is an American publisher and founder of M. Shanken Communications. Shanken's roster of lifestyle publications includes Wine Spectator and Cigar Aficionado.-Life and career:...
of Wine Spectator
Wine Spectator
Wine Spectator is a lifestyle magazine that focuses on wine and wine culture. It publishes 15 issues per year with content that includes news, articles, profiles, and general entertainment pieces...
Magazine, with Michael Broadbent handling the gavel
Gavel
A gavel is a small ceremonial mallet commonly made of hardwood, typically fashioned with a handle and often struck against a sound block to enhance its sounding qualities. It is a symbol of the authority and right to act officially in the capacity of a chair or presiding officer. It is used to call...
at the auction.
Additional "Th. J." bottles were sold, also via other auction houses.
Pétrus imperial bottle controversy
In late 1990s, David PeppercornDavid Peppercorn
David Peppercorn is a British Master of Wine, French wine importer and author, known for his books about the wines of Bordeaux and long experience in his field, having collected tasting notes since the late 1950s. He is married to fellow MW and wine writer Serena Sutcliffe. They were the first...
and his wife, Serena Sutcliffe
Serena Sutcliffe
Serena Sutcliffe, Master of Wine, is the head of Sotheby's international wine department, as well as a prominent writer on wine. She is married to fellow Master of Wine, David Peppercorn...
, created controversy when they questioned the authenticity of Imperial (6 liter
Litre
pic|200px|right|thumb|One litre is equivalent to this cubeEach side is 10 cm1 litre water = 1 kilogram water The litre is a metric system unit of volume equal to 1 cubic decimetre , to 1,000 cubic centimetres , and to 1/1,000 cubic metre...
) bottles
Wine bottle
A wine bottle is a bottle used for holding wine, generally made of glass. Some wines are fermented in the bottle, others are bottled only after fermentation. They come in a large variety of sizes, several named for Biblical kings and other figures. The standard bottle contains 750 ml,...
of Château Pétrus
Château Pétrus
Pétrus is a Bordeaux wine estate located in the Pomerol appellation near its eastern border to Saint-Émilion. An estate of limited size, it produces a limited production red wine almost entirely from Merlot grapes, on occasion with small amounts of Cabernet Franc, and produces no second wine...
from the 1921, 1924, 1926, 1928 and 1934 vintage
Vintage
Vintage, in wine-making, is the process of picking grapes and creating the finished product . A vintage wine is one made from grapes that were all, or primarily, grown and harvested in a single specified year. In certain wines, it can denote quality, as in Port wine, where Port houses make and...
s that were served at collectors wine tasting events in 1989 & 1990. The tastings were conducted from the personal collection of Rodenstock who claimed to have purchased them from a private collector in England. While Peppercorn and Sutcliffe's concerns were never proven, and disputed by Rodenstock, the current manager of Château Pétrus, Christian Moueix
Christian Moueix
Christian Moueix is a French winemaker and the president of the négociant house Établissements Jean-Pierre Moueix in Libourne, overseeing production in several estates in Saint-Émilion and Pomerol including Château Pétrus and Château Trotanoy...
, confirmed that the estate has no records of producing Imperials during those vintages.
Subsequently, the authenticity of some magnums (1.5 liter bottles) of 1921 Pétrus that Rodenstock sold have also been the subject of litigation; the 1921 is notable as having been awarded a perfect 100-point score by Robert Parker, based on his tasting at the 1995 Munich event.
Controversy over authenticity of Thomas Jefferson wine bottles
In 2005, US art and wine collector Bill KochBill Koch (businessman)
William Ingraham "Bill" Koch is an American businessman, sailor, and collector. His boat was the winner of the America's Cup in 1992. His last name is pronounced "coke." Per Forbes William Koch's net worth was $3.4 billion in 2010 on oil and other investments-Early life and business...
, who had bought some of the bottles attributed to Jefferson, prepared to exhibit items from his collection at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, including the Jefferson bottles. The museum asked for provenance
Provenance
Provenance, from the French provenir, "to come from", refers to the chronology of the ownership or location of an historical object. The term was originally mostly used for works of art, but is now used in similar senses in a wide range of fields, including science and computing...
of the items to be displayed. Koch had bought four bottles in 1988, Châteaux Lafite and Branne-Mouton (present-day Château Mouton-Rothschild) of the 1784 and 1787 vintages, at a US wine auction house (Chicago Wine Company) and a UK rare wine dealer (Farr Vintners), and paid a total of about 500,000 US dollars for them. When Koch's staff couldn't find anything but Michael Broadbent's authentification of the bottles to back up their provenance, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello
Monticello
Monticello is a National Historic Landmark just outside Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was the estate of Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence, third President of the United States, and founder of the University of Virginia; it is...
, Charlottesville, Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
was contacted. The foundation's curator
Curator
A curator is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material...
replied that based on Jefferson's records, the foundation didn't think that the bottles had been in the possession of Thomas Jefferson. Inquiries at Chicago Wine Company and Farr Vintners came up with the result that all four of Koch's bottles originated with Rodenstock.
After initial attempts at contacts with Rodenstock gave no significant results, Koch hired a retired Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
agent to form a team to start private investigations into Rodenstock's sales of wine. David Molyneux-Berry, former head of Sotheby's
Sotheby's
Sotheby's is the world's fourth oldest auction house in continuous operation.-History:The oldest auction house in operation is the Stockholms Auktionsverk founded in 1674, the second oldest is Göteborgs Auktionsverk founded in 1681 and third oldest being founded in 1731, all Swedish...
wine department was hired as a consultant, and several forensic investigations were conducted on the wines, bottles and engravings; Koch alleges that the engravings were made with an electric power tool, which would have been impossible at the time and would indicate modern forgery.
On August 31, 2006, Koch filed a civil lawsuit against Rodenstock a.k.a Görke in a New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
federal court
United States federal courts
The United States federal courts make up the judiciary branch of federal government of the United States organized under the United States Constitution and laws of the federal government.-Categories:...
, claiming that he had been the victim of fraud
Fraud
In criminal law, a fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual; the related adjective is fraudulent. The specific legal definition varies by legal jurisdiction. Fraud is a crime, and also a civil law violation...
. The reason that Rodenstock personally was named as defendant
Defendant
A defendant or defender is any party who is required to answer the complaint of a plaintiff or pursuer in a civil lawsuit before a court, or any party who has been formally charged or accused of violating a criminal statute...
, rather than Chicago Wine Company or Farr Vintners, was that Koch claimed that Rodenstock had orchestrated an ongoing scheme to defraud wine collectors. Koch's lawsuit included many results from his team's forensic investigations. This lawsuit has then been the subject of many legal turns during 2007 and 2008, primarily focused on procedural and statutory issues. , the lawsuit remains in court, with a default judgment having been entered against Rodenstock in May 2010, in a trial in which Rodenstock refused to participate.
Details of legal turns during 2007 and 2008
Rodenstock maintained that as a German citizen living in Germany, the court had no jurisdiction over him, especially since the bottles were bought from third parties, and that the statute of limitationStatute of limitations
A statute of limitations is an enactment in a common law legal system that sets the maximum time after an event that legal proceedings based on that event may be initiated...
should bar the case. He therefore refused to take part in the proceedings. Therefore, on August 14, 2007 the magistrate
Magistrate
A magistrate is an officer of the state; in modern usage the term usually refers to a judge or prosecutor. This was not always the case; in ancient Rome, a magistratus was one of the highest government officers and possessed both judicial and executive powers. Today, in common law systems, a...
judge
Judge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open...
supervising the pretrial procedures recommended that the court should enter a default judgment
Default judgment
Default judgment is a binding judgment in favor of either party based on some failure to take action by the other party. Most often, it is a judgment in favor of a plaintiff when the defendant has not responded to a summons or has failed to appear before a court of law...
against Rodenstock, provided that the case was not thrown out by the trial judge because of Rodenstock's procedural defences. On January 11, 2008, the case was thrown out by the judge because the court was lacking personal jurisdiction
Jurisdiction
Jurisdiction is the practical authority granted to a formally constituted legal body or to a political leader to deal with and make pronouncements on legal matters and, by implication, to administer justice within a defined area of responsibility...
over Rodenstock as defendant
Defendant
A defendant or defender is any party who is required to answer the complaint of a plaintiff or pursuer in a civil lawsuit before a court, or any party who has been formally charged or accused of violating a criminal statute...
. Koch was given 30 days to refile his lawsuit if he was unsatisfied with the court's ruling, and he did so on February 11, 2008. The refiled lawsuit attempted to address the issue of the court's jurisdiction over Rodenstock. When the case was refiled, it was not known when the court would next respond to it. When Rodenstock still refused to take part in the proceedings after the lawsuit was refiled, Koch argued on March 27, 2008 that Rodenstock should be found in default. At the same time, Koch filed a lawsuit in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
against the Chicago Wine Company and the Chicago-based Julienne Importing Company. Some time later, Koch claimed to have obtained evidence that nine additional bottles in his possession, dated from 1737 to 1936, were also fakes or "highly suspect" and originated with Rodenstock. Therefore, in June 2008, Koch asked the court's permission to file a second amended complaint.
Rodenstock's position
To media covering the trial, Rodenstock has presented various arguments to support the authenticity of the "Th. J." bottles, and counter-arguments to Koch's claim. He has however never revealed the name of the person who sold the bottles to him, the address in Paris where the bottles were found, or the exact number of bottles found. Figures ranging from "a dozen or so" to thirty have been quoted throughout the years. The German magazine SternStern (magazine)
Stern is a weekly news magazine published in Germany. It was founded in 1948 by Henri Nannen, and is currently published by Gruner + Jahr, a subsidiary of Bertelsmann. In the first quarter of 2006, its print run was 1.019 million copies and it reached 7.84 million readers according to...
, which ran a story on the Jefferson bottle controversy in March 2007, has offered Rodenstock to have bottles still in his possession analysed by the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing
Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung
The Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing or Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung is a German material research institute.-History:...
(which determined the Hitler Diaries
Hitler Diaries
In April 1983, the West German news magazine Stern published excerpts from what purported to be the diaries of Adolf Hitler, known as the Hitler Diaries , which were subsequently revealed to be forgeries...
to be faked) at their expense, but Rodenstock has declined.
Book on the controversy
In May 2008, a book about the controversy was published under the title The Billionaire's Vinegar, written by Benjamin Wallace. Rodenstock was not available for comments on the publication of the book. Auctioneer Michael BroadbentMichael Broadbent
John Michael Broadbent MW is a British wine critic, writer and auctioneer in a capacity as a Master of Wine...
, on the other hand, was unhappy with how his relationship to Rodenstock was portrayed in the book.
In July 2009 it was announced that Michael Broadbent would sue Random House, the publishers of The Billionaire's Vinegar, for libel and defamation of character, on claims that the book made allegations which suggested that Mr Broadbent had behaved in an unprofessional manner in the way in which he had auctioned some of these bottles and that his relationship and dealings with Hardy Rodenstock was suspected of being improper. The suit was filed in the United Kingdom, whose libel laws are favorable to the plaintiff (see English defamation law
English defamation law
Modern libel and slander laws, as implemented in many Commonwealth nations as well as in the United States and in the Republic of Ireland, are originally descended from English defamation law...
), and Random House initially stated it did not believe it had defamed Broadbent and would defend the lawsuit.
In October 2009, Random House, avoiding trial, entered into a settlement agreement with Broadbent. In a statement read out in open court, Random House apologised unreservedly for making the allegations and accepted that they were untrue. It gave an undertaking not to repeat the allegations and paid Mr Broadbent undisclosed damages. It removed the book from sale in the United Kingdom. It was also reported that Wallace was not a party to the lawsuit or settlement, that Random House would be making no changes to the book, and that it would continue to publish the book in all territories except the UK.
The film rights
Film rights
Film rights are the rights under copyright law to make a derivative work—in this case, a film—derived from an item of intellectual property. Under U.S...
to The Billionaire's Vinegar have been purchased by a Hollywood consortium, while HBO simultaneously had bought the film rights to the corresponding The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
article.
Royal Wine Merchants
In a March 2010 lawsuit filed against Christie'sChristie's
Christie's is an art business and a fine arts auction house.- History :The official company literature states that founder James Christie conducted the first sale in London, England, on 5 December 1766, and the earliest auction catalogue the company retains is from December 1766...
, Koch alleges, inter alia, that Rodenstock distributed many bottles in the United States via Daniel Oliveros and Jeff Sokolin of Royal Wine Merchants – 818 bottles between 1998 and 2008, virtually all rarities, of which 87% were magnum
Wine bottle
A wine bottle is a bottle used for holding wine, generally made of glass. Some wines are fermented in the bottle, others are bottled only after fermentation. They come in a large variety of sizes, several named for Biblical kings and other figures. The standard bottle contains 750 ml,...
size (1.5 L, twice normal size). Such a volume of rare wines in a rare format has provoked skepticism, and Oliveros and Sokolin have been accused by various sources, including Robert Parker, of selling fake wine, which they deny; some of the wines in question are documented as originated with Rodenstock, though Royal and Rodenstock disagree on specifics.