Hardy Rodenstock
Two eighteenth-century, forty nineteenth-century, and all released twentieth-century vintages of Château d'Yquem up to 1991 were featured in this vertical tasting, which was conducted over the course of a week.
[4][8] Other participants at the Rodenstock tastings included Jancis Robinson,[9] Robert M. Parker Jr., and the then-owner of Château d'Yquem, Alexandre de Lur-Saluces.
According to Rodenstock's own account, in early 1985 he received a telephone call about a discovery of old wine bottles in Paris.
[11] The buyer was Christopher Forbes, bidding against Marvin Shanken of Wine Spectator Magazine, with Michael Broadbent handling the gavel at the auction.
When Koch's staff couldn't find anything except Michael Broadbent's authentification of the bottles to confirm their provenance, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello, Charlottesville, Virginia was contacted.
[11] Inquiries at Chicago Wine Company and Farr Vintners came up with the result that all four of Koch's bottles originated with Rodenstock.
[4] David Molyneux-Berry, former head of Sotheby's wine department was hired as a consultant, and several forensic investigations were conducted on the wines, bottles, and engravings;[8][12][13] Koch alleges that the engravings were made with an electric power tool, which would not have been possible in the eighteenth century and would indicate modern forgery.
[1] 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 limitation should bar the case.
[21] Sometime later, Koch claimed to have obtained evidence that nine additional bottles in his possession, dated from 1737 to 1936, also were fakes or "highly suspect" and they had originated with Rodenstock.
[3][14] The German magazine Stern, which ran a story on the Jefferson bottle controversy in March 2007, offered Rodenstock to have bottles still in his possession analysed by the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (which determined the Hitler Diaries to be faked) at their expense, but Rodenstock declined.
[26] 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 that suggested that 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 more favourable to the defendant as the plaintiff has to demonstrate the infraction.
In a statement read out in open court, Random House apologised unreservedly for making the allegations, and accepted that they were untrue.
[30][31] In late 1990s, David Peppercorn and his wife, Serena Sutcliffe, created controversy when they questioned the authenticity of Imperial (6 liter) bottles of Château Pétrus from the 1921, 1924, 1926, 1928, and 1934 vintages that were served at collectors' wine tasting events in 1989 and 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 were disputed by Rodenstock, the current manager of Château Pétrus, Christian Moueix, confirmed that the estate has no records of producing Imperials during those vintages.
[33] In a March 2010 lawsuit filed against Christie's, Koch alleges, inter alia, that Rodenstock distributed many bottles in the United States via Daniel Oliveros and Jeff Sokolin of Royal Wine Merchants [1][33] – 818 bottles between 1998 and 2008, virtually all rarities, of which 87% were magnum size (1.5 L).
