Thomas Jefferson Wine a Hoax

Filed in archive Wine News on September 9, 2006

Bummer! Needless to say you would be more than a little ticked off to find out that the mucho expensive wine you just bought that supposedly was from the vineyards of Thomas Jefferson is a fake.

I remember reading about this not that long ago and I was totally amazed that this stuff was still around. Now it is understandable as to why I was amazed - it was a rip off!

As reported by Uncorked:

It sounded too good to be true - wines found in a Paris basement that belonged to Thomas Jefferson - and now, at least one collector who purchased a few bottles of the wine cache (for a cool half-million dollars) says it WAS too good to be true.

And the collector - Palm Beach millionaire Bill Koch - is none too happy about it. In fact, he has sued.

"(The) investigation has proven that (the) most celebrated wine 'discovery' - 18th century wine purportedly bottled for Thomas Jefferson, complete with 'Th.J.' initials engraved on the bottles - is a hoax," his lawyers wrote in a lawsuit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in New York, according to the Palm Beach Post story.

Read more from the Palm Beach Post:

Could a cache of wine reportedly found in a bricked-up Paris basement have belonged to Thomas Jefferson when the beloved former president lived in France more than 200 years ago? Palm Beach resident Bill Koch spent more than $500,000 on a global investigation to find the answer to the 20-year-old wine mystery. And to the chagrin of the tycoon-turned-yachtsman, other wealthy wine collectors and the renowned auction house Christie's, the answer, he says, is a resounding no.