Amused Cynic

I read in the WSJ last year about the allegations of fraud surrounding the sale of several bottles of wine purported to have belonged to Thomas Jefferson. It has evolved into a libel lawsuit, in which the world-famous oeno-savant who vouched for the authenticity of the wines seeks to salvage his expert reputation, but it seems he will have a tough row of vines to cultivate; you can read the latest scuttlebutt here.

I like wine, but not wine collecting. Buying ancient bottles to store on a shelf reminds me of people who pay huge sums for a dead-mint 1956 Stratocaster with its original strings and all the hang-tags, just to hang it up on the wall and look at it. If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, did it make a sound? If a vintage Stratocaster hangs on the wall, and no one has ever played the poor thing….you get my point, and double-ditto for wine (a well-worn Strat goes better with good wine than aged cheese, anyway).

But what really caught my eye was the following text (bold added):

As Wallace meticulously documents, Broadbent repeatedly and insistently vouched for Rodenstock and the Jefferson bottles. He was dismissive of the researcher at Monticello who cast doubt on the authenticity of the wines and of questions raised in the press. In addition to doing business with Rodenstock, Broadbent benefited from his largesse. Rodenstock was famous in wine circles for the marathon tastings that he held, multi-day extravaganzas that typically featured wines back to the 18th century. Broadbent attended these bacchanals, served as the authority-in-residence during them, and came away with tasting notes for many old and exceedingly rare wines. If, as now seems undeniable, Rodenstock was a con artist who trafficked in counterfeit wines, those tasting notes are worthless.

But contrary to what Broadbent is claiming in his lawsuit, The Billionaire’s Vinegar does not suggest that he was a witting accomplice to Rodenstock. Rather, the portrait that emerges is of a man who let his hopes and competitive zeal cloud his judgment. For obvious reasons, auctioning off wines that once belonged to Jefferson promised to be the crowning glory of Broadbent’s illustrious career, and having staked his credibility on those bottles, he was understandably reluctant to entertain the possibility that they were fakes. (In an interview last year with Jon Bonné of the San Francisco Chronicle, Broadbent defended his decision to sell the wines but conceded that not enough had been known about the circumstances under which the cache had been found. “We didn’t have proof of where it came from,” he said.) By Wallace’s account, Broadbent was led astray by his enthusiasm

Sound familiar? Me too. I immediately thought of all the political savants who told us all about Obama’s “temperament,” his “intellectual nature,” his “sophistication,” etc. And then I started thinking about silly wine-tasting notes…you know, “the nose is redolent of coffee grounds and wet oak leaves, but the finish is all succulent butterscotch sundae with real vanilla beans…”

As Kyle-Anne SmithShiver summed up so perfectly regarding Obama, rueful wine experts now say of the Jefferson bottles: “we didn’t have any proof of where it came from.” [admin note: I am a huge admirer of both Kyle-Anne Shiver and Kyle Smith; sorry for conflating their names, and thanks to an alert reader for pointing out my mistake.]

All in all, though, I might be able to get past the whole long-form birth certificate issue if this president had released the whole host of other life documentation, generally required for high-level job applications.

To whit, what is in the following documents that might diminish the Obama “narrative,” as sold to the public by marketing guru, David Axelrod, and a strangely incurious media?

* Panahou Academy school records, 5th through 12th grades
* Occidental College records, including financial aid information.
* Columbia University records, including the missing senior thesis and financial aid information.
* Harvard University records, including information on how a student who never wrote anything (that can be found) was elected president of the prestigious law review, and including information on how Harvard Law School was afforded by humble community agitator, Barack Obama.
* Obama’s Illinois state senate records and papers, mysteriously lost.

No man or woman in this Country today could successfully apply for a high-level executive position with any corporation without submitting this meager documentation to prove the statements made in a job application. No president in the past 30 years has been permitted this level of secrecy about his life. Yet, today we have a sitting president who has provided none of it. In lieu of actual documents, the American public has a “narrative” created by PR guru, turned political operative, David Axelrod.

It is this veritable information vacuum that feeds the birth certificate inquiries.

She’s not talking just about the birth certificate. Nobody checked out the provenance of this feckless young man that we elected king. And those who sold us on this fraud—with all the best intentions—will be very reluctant to go back and admit that their own coins of their own realm—their sagacity and reliability—are “inoperative.” Such is the way of the world…even the stars slip on banana peels and become mere humans like the rest of us. Which is why there’s an injunction against taking false idols in the Ten Commandments. Even if you’re not religious, that’s just good, common sense.

['65 Strat with '00 doggie...'90 Ch. Margaux offscreen]