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In Vino Duplicitas
- The Rise and Fall of a Wine Forger Extraordinaire
- Narrated by: Charles Constant
- Length: 8 hrs and 26 mins
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Publisher's summary
Few gain entry to the privileged world of ultrafine wines, where billionaires flock to exclusive auction houses to vie for the scarce surviving bottles from truly legendary years. But Rudy Kurniawan, an unknown 20-something from Indonesia, was blessed with two gifts that opened doors: a virtuoso palate for wine tasting and access to a seemingly limitless (if mysterious) supply of the world's most coveted wines.
After bursting onto the scene in 2002, Kurniawan quickly became the leading purveyor of rare wines to the American elite. But in April 2008, his lots of Domaine Ponsot Clos Saint-Denis red burgundy - dating as far back as 1945 - were abruptly pulled from auction. The problem? The winemaker was certain that this particular burgundy was first produced only in 1982.
Journalist Peter Hellman was there, and he would closely investigate as a singular cast of characters - including a Kansas-born billionaire, a wine-loving young prosecutor, and a crusty FBI agent - worked to unravel the biggest con in wine history. Whether driven by the love of wine or of justice, all were asking the same question: Was the mild-mannered Kurniawan himself a dupe? Or had one young man - with little experience and few connections - ensnared the world's top winemakers, sellers, and drinkers in a web of deceit?
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- By: Edward Humes
- Narrated by: Mel Foster
- Length: 12 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist tells the story of the self-made billionaire who built the Kendall-Jackson empire from nothing into the biggest-selling brand of premium wines in the U.S. Jess Stonestreet Jackson was one of a small band of pioneering entrepreneurs who put California's wine country on the map. His life story is a compelling slice of history, daring, innovation, feuds, intrigue, talent, mystique, contrarianism, and luck, offering a unique window on the elegant, adventurous, and cut-throat worlds of Jackson's two passions: wine and horseracing.
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Required listening for any wine maker
- By Michael Carr on 01-10-15
By: Edward Humes
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Shadows in the Vineyard
- The True Story of the Plot to Poison the World's Greatest Wine
- By: Maximillian Potter
- Narrated by: Donald Corren
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Journalist Maximillian Potter uncovers a fascinating plot to destroy the vines of La Romance-Conti, Burgundy's finest and most expensive wine. In January 2010, Aubert de Villaine, the famed proprietor of the Domaine de la Romance-Conti, the tiny, storied vineyard that produces the most expensive, exquisite wines in the world, received an anonymous note threatening the destruction of his priceless vines by poison - a crime that in the world of high-end wine is akin to murder - unless he paid a one million euro ransom.
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Eet waz eenteresteeng
- By J. Cadow on 04-25-16
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Bitter Brew
- The Rise and Fall of Anheuser-Busch and America's Kings of Beer
- By: William Knoedelseder
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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The engrossing, often scandalous saga of one of the wealthiest, longest-lasting, and most colorful family dynasties in the history of American commerce—a cautionary tale about prosperity, profligacy, hubris, and the blessings and dark consequences of success. This engrossing, vivid narrative captures the Busch saga through five generations. At the same time, it weaves a broader story of American progress and decline over the past 150 years. It's a cautionary tale of prosperity, hubris, and loss.
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Couldn't stop listening...
- By Jeremy McGough on 11-09-12
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The House of Mondavi
- The Rise and Fall of an American Wine Dynasty
- By: Julia Flynn Siler
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 17 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Set in California's lush Napa Valley and spanning four generations of a talented and visionary family, The House of Mondavi is a tale of genius, sibling rivalry, and betrayal. From 1906, when Italian immigrant Cesare Mondavi passed through Ellis Island, to the Robert Mondavi Corporation's 21st-century battle over a billion-dollar fortune, award-winning journalist Julia Flynn Siler brings to life both the place and the people in this riveting family drama.
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LESS EXCITING THAN WATCHING GRAPES GROW
- By The Louligan on 11-27-09
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The Juice
- Vinous Veritas: Essays
- By: Jay McInerney
- Narrated by: Jay McInerney
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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For more than a decade, Jay McInerney’s vinous essays, now featured in The Wall Street Journal, have been praised by restaurateurs (“Filled with small courses and surprising and exotic flavors, educational and delicious at the same time” —Mario Batali), by esteemed critics (“Brilliant, witty, comical, and often shamelessly candid and provocative” —Robert M. Parker Jr.), and by the media (“His wine judgments are sound, his anecdotes witty, and his literary references impeccable” — The New York Times).
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eye opener
- By FlGatorsGuy on 11-16-15
By: Jay McInerney
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Bad Paper
- Chasing Debt from Wall Street to the Underworld
- By: Jake Halpern
- Narrated by: Qarie Marshall
- Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Jake Halpern introduces us to a former banking executive and a former armed robber who become partners and go in quest of "paper" - the uncollected debts that are sold off by banks for pennies on the dollar. As Halpern shows, the world of consumer debt collection is a wild and unregulated shadow land, where operators may misrepresent a debtor's situation, make illegal threats, and even lay claim to debts that are not theirs to collect in the first place.
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An Examination of Bad Debts; its Buyers & Sellers
- By Darwin8u on 08-22-16
By: Jake Halpern
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The Gardner Heist
- The True Story of the World's Largest Unsolved Art Theft
- By: Ulrich Boser
- Narrated by: Stephen Graybill
- Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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After the death of famed art detective Harold Smith, reporter Ulrich Boser decided to take up the case. Exploring Smith's unfinished leads, Boser travels deep into the art underworld and comes across a remarkable cast of characters, including a brilliant rock 'n' roll thief, a gangster who professes his innocence in rhyming verse, and the enigmatic late Boston heiress Isabella Stewart Gardner herself. Boser becomes increasingly obsessed with the case and eventually uncovers startling new evidence about the identities of the thieves.
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Loved it!
- By Amanda D. on 05-21-19
By: Ulrich Boser
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Napa
- By: James Conaway
- Narrated by: John Morgan
- Length: 20 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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James Conaway's remarkable bestseller delves into the heart of California's lush and verdant Napa Valley, also known as America's Eden. Long the source of succulent grapes and singular wines, this region is also the setting for the remarkable true saga of the personalities behind the winemaking empires. This is the story of Gallos and Mondavis, of fortunes made and lost, of dynasties and destinies.
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Excellent But Marred by Non-Stop Mispronunciations
- By Robert R. on 08-15-13
By: James Conaway
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The Zeroes
- My Misadventures in the Decade Wall Street Went Insane
- By: Randall Lane
- Narrated by: Randall Lane
- Length: 12 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Magazine entrepreneur Randall Lane had a prime seat at Wall Street's biggest greed fest. The Zeroes is a memoir about the excesses and bad behavior of an outsider who got pulled into a crazy, self-contained world.
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A very entertaining tale
- By andy on 11-03-13
By: Randall Lane
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The Bettencourt Affair
- The World's Richest Woman and the Scandal That Rocked Paris
- By: Tom Sancton
- Narrated by: Amanda Carlin
- Length: 13 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Heiress to the nearly 40-billion-dollar L’Oréal fortune, Liliane Bettencourt was the world’s richest woman and the 14th wealthiest person. But her gilded life took a dark yet fascinating turn in the past decade. At 94, she was embroiled in what has been called the Bettencourt Affair, a scandal that dominated the headlines in France. Why? It’s a tangled web of hidden secrets, divided loyalties, frayed relationships, and fractured families, set in the most romantic city - and involving the most glamorous industry - in the world.
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A Juicy Chronicle
- By Jean on 10-24-17
By: Tom Sancton
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Judgment of Paris
- California vs. France and the Historic 1976 Paris Tasting That Revolutionized Wine
- By: George M. Taber
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 13 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History houses, amid its illustrious artifacts, two bottles of wine: a 1973 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon and a 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay. These are the wines that won at the now-famous Paris Tasting in 1976, where a panel of top French wine experts compared some of France's most famous wines with a new generation of California wines. Little did they know the wine industry would be completely transformed as a result....
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Only for the wine-obsessed
- By History on 12-01-11
By: George M. Taber
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The King of Content
- Sumner Redstone’s Battle for Viacom, CBS, and Everlasting Control of His Media Empire
- By: Keach Hagey
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 10 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Sumner Murray Redstone, once feared as the “mad genius” of media who would dump his CEOs for mere wobbles in his companies’ stock price, had built one of the world’s greatest media empires through a series of audacious takeovers constructed to ensure that he always maintained control. Today he controls 80 percent of the voting shares of both Viacom and CBS, meaning that on a whim he could replace the entire boards of two public companies with a combined value of $40 billion.
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Feels biased. Well researched, but not engaging.
- By Anonymous User on 04-03-19
By: Keach Hagey
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The Mark Inside
- A Perfect Swindle, a Cunning Revenge, and a Small History of the Big Con
- By: Amy Reading
- Narrated by: Richard McGonagle
- Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1919, Texas rancher J. Frank Norfleet lost everything he had in a stock market swindle. He did what many other marks did - he went home, borrowed more money from his family, and returned for another round of swindling. Only after he lost that second fortune did he reclaim control of his story. Instead of crawling back home in shame, he vowed to hunt down the five men who had conned him. Through Norfleet's ingenious reverse-swindle, Amy Reading reveals the mechanics behind the scenes of the big con.
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Confusing Premise Makes for A Tough Read
- By Grumpy S. Monkey on 06-19-12
By: Amy Reading
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The Wizard of Lies
- Bernie Madoff and the Death of Trust
- By: Diana B. Henriques
- Narrated by: Pam Ward
- Length: 16 hrs
- Unabridged
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Who is Bernie Madoff, and how did he pull off the biggest Ponzi scheme in history? These questions have fascinated people ever since the news broke about the respected New York financier who swindled his friends, relatives, and other investors out of $65 billion. Many have speculated about what must have happened, but no reporter has been able to get the full story - until now. Diana B. Henriques of the New York Times has written the definitive book on the man and his scheme.
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The best of 3 madoff books
- By Angela willis on 03-18-13
What listeners say about In Vino Duplicitas
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- J. Lippincott
- 03-05-19
Fascinating read for lovers of wine history
Very interesting. Just gets a little dry with the endlessly derailed references to various wines and vintages. If you enjoyed Billionaire's Vinegar, you will enjoy this.
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2 people found this helpful
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- clotilded
- 04-21-18
well narrated and respectful of the real persons i
great story, lots of things learnt here about rare wines. i like the story is respectful of every character while informing on what was done illegally and in ignorance. looking forward for this book tobe translated in french so i can offer it to my family.
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1 person found this helpful
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- NelMazdaspeed
- 11-07-18
Wow... I couldn't stop listening!
Really enjoyed it, the story kept my ears glued to the details. The one thing that threw me was how it jumped back and forth on Rudy's age, and how some specifics were repeated at later points in the book having me think that u somehow jumped back to the previous chapter where it was mentioned earlier.
The narrator was great, his pronunciation of the French, Italian wines were fluent. I'm going to watch the Doc Sour grapes and see I guess a visual of some of the things heard in this book. I dont know if theres a movie about this counterfeiter, but I sure would love to see a movie based off of how this book was written. Looking forward to listen to it again in the future. 5* for sure.
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- Yenrab Namrehs
- 02-11-19
Fascinating Story poorly told.
I appreciate the wine writer tried his hand at "true crime" but he should have stuck with wine and let a real drama writer write this one. He just can't put together the drama or the mystery. Which is too bad, because there is plenty of it here.
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- Southern Mel
- 10-31-18
Fascinating read,
This was one of my favourite audible books!! After listening to me go on and on about the stories in this book my husband actually listened to it with me. It was hard to find a good place to break because each chapter left you wanting more.
I doubt I would have enjoyed reading the physical book as much as I would have been too caught up in trying to correctly prounounce all the French wines.
If you want a fascinating read sit back and enjoy this book!
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- Gerhild D Kessler
- 05-09-22
really drags
This book really drags on way to long - too many small and really unimportant details, The author seems to get sidetracked sometimes talking about the background of the people involved.
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- Js
- 11-19-18
Nothing i didn’t know
I was hoping for more insight into the fake wine scandal. Nothing much new most can be learned in “Sour Grapes” documentary
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1 person found this helpful
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- Kathryn
- 09-17-17
Great Read Especially for Wine Lovers
Very intriguing story! Enjoyed the comparison to Jay Gatsby and insight into the world of rare wine trading.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Nashville spokes
- 10-30-17
details of international intrigue
I think more information about the international money-laundering efforts by the family would have been a little bit more interesting.
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- Sheila S.
- 11-13-23
Good idea, poor execution
I love learning about wines and was looking forward to hearing stories of fraud in the wine world. Sadly, this turned into a rather boring series of quotes from people that are supposedly wine experts and connoisseurs. I could even finish listening.
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