| I 'm just going to play a brief video clip . Video : 50,000 pounds . On the fifth of December 1985 , a bottle of 1787 Lafitte was sold for 105,000 pounds -- nine times the previous world record . Mr. Forbes . The buyer was Kip Forbes , son of one of the most flamboyant millionaires of the 20th century . The original owner of the bottle turned out to be one of the most enthusiastic wine buffs of the 18th century . Château Lafitte is one of the greatest wines in the world , the prince of any wine cellar . Benjamin Wallace : Now , that 's about all the videotape that remains of an event that set off the longest-running mystery in the modern wine world . And the mystery existed because of a gentleman named Hardy Rodenstock . In 1985 , he announced to his friends in the wine world that he had made this incredible discovery . Some workmen in Paris had broken through a brick wall , and happened upon this hidden cache of wines -- apparently the property of Thomas Jefferson . 1787 , 1784. He would n't reveal the exact number of bottles , he would not reveal exactly where the building was and he would not reveal exactly who owned the building . The mystery persisted for about 20 years . It finally began to get resolved in 2005 because of this guy . Bill Koch is a Florida billionaire who owns four of the Jefferson bottles , and he became suspicious . And he ended up spending over a million dollars and hiring ex-FBI and ex-Scotland Yard agents to try to get to the bottom of this . There 's now ample evidence that Hardy Rodenstock is a con man , and that the Jefferson bottles were fakes . But for those 20 years , an unbelievable number of really eminent and accomplished figures in the wine world were sort of drawn into the orbit of these bottles . I think they wanted to believe that the most expensive bottle of wine in the world must be the best bottle of wine in the world , must be the rarest bottle of wine in the world . I became increasingly , kind of voyeuristically interested in the question of you know , why do people spend these crazy amounts of money , not only on wine but on lots of things , and are they living a better life than me ? So , I decided to embark on a quest . With the generous backing of a magazine I write for sometimes , I decided to sample the very best , or most expensive , or most coveted item in about a dozen categories , which was a very grueling quest , as you can imagine . ( Laughter ) This was the first one . A lot of the Kobe beef that you see in the U. S. is not the real thing . It may come from Wagyu cattle , but it 's not from the original , Appalachian Hyogo Prefecture in Japan . There are very few places in the U. S. where you can try real Kobe , and one of them is Wolfgang Puck 's restaurant , CUT , in Los Angeles . I went there , and I ordered the eight-ounce rib eye for 160 dollars . And it arrived , and it was tiny . And I was outraged . It was like , 160 dollars for this ? And then I took a bite , and I wished that it was tinier , because Kobe beef is so rich . It 's like foie gras -- it 's not even like steak . I almost could n't finish it . I was really happy when I was done . ( Laughter ) Now , the photographer who took the pictures for this project for some reason posed his dog in a lot of them , so that 's why you 're going to see this recurring character . Which , I guess , you know , communicates to you that I did not think that one was really worth the price . White truffles . One of the most expensive luxury foods by weight in the world . To try this , I went to a Mario Batali restaurant in Manhattan -- Del Posto . The waiter , you know , came out with the white truffle knob and his shaver , and he shaved it onto my pasta and he said , you know , " Would Signore like the truffles ? " And the charm of white truffles is in their aroma . It 's not in their taste , really . It 's not in their texture . It 's in the smell . These white pearlescent flakes hit the noodles , this haunting , wonderful , nutty , mushroomy smell wafted up . 10 seconds passed and it was gone . And then I was left with these little ugly flakes on my pasta that , you know , their purpose had been served , and so I 'm afraid to say that this was also a disappointment to me . There were several -- several of these items were disappointments . ( Laughter ) Yeah . The magazine would n't pay for me to go there . ( Laughter ) They did give me a tour , though . And this hotel suite is 4,300 square feet . It has 360-degree views . It has four balconies . It was designed by the architect I. M. Pei . It comes with its own Rolls Royce and driver . It comes with its own wine cellar that you can draw freely from . When I took the tour , it actually included some Opus One , I was glad to see . 30,000 dollars for a night in a hotel . This is soap that 's made from silver nanoparticles , which have antibacterial properties . I washed my face with this this morning in preparation for this . And it , you know , tickled a little bit and it smelled good , but I have to say that nobody here has complimented me on the cleanliness of my face today . ( Laughter ) But then again , nobody has complimented me on the jeans I 'm wearing . These ones GQ did spring for -- I own these -- but I will tell you , not only did I not get a compliment from any of you , I have not gotten a compliment from anybody in the months that I have owned and worn these . I do n't think that whether or not you 're getting a compliment should be the test of something 's value , but I think in the case of a fashion item , an article of clothing , that 's a reasonable benchmark . That said , a lot of work goes into these . They are made from handpicked organic Zimbabwean cotton that has been shuttle loomed and then hand-dipped in natural indigo 24 times . But no compliments . ( Laughter ) Thank you . Armando Manni is a former filmmaker who makes this olive oil from an olive that grows on a single slope in Tuscany . And he goes to great lengths to protect the olive oil from oxygen and light . He uses tiny bottles , the glass is tinted , he tops the olive oil off with an inert gas . And he actually -- once he releases a batch of it , he regularly conducts molecular analyses and posts the results online , so you can go online and look at your batch number and see how the phenolics are developing , and , you know , gauge its freshness . I did a blind taste test of this with 20 people and five other olive oils . It tasted fine . It tasted interesting . It was very green , it was very peppery . But in the blind taste test , it came in last . The olive oil that came in first was actually a bottle of Whole Foods 365 olive oil which had been oxidizing next to my stove for six months . ( Laughter ) A recurring theme is that a lot of these things are from Japan -- you 'll start to notice . I do n't play golf , so I could n't actually road test these , but I did interview a guy who owns them . Even the people who market these clubs -- I mean , they 'll say these have four axis shafts which minimize loss of club speed and thereby drive the ball farther -- but they 'll say , look , you know , you 're not getting 57,000 dollars worth of performance from these clubs . You 're paying for the bling , that they 're encrusted with gold and platinum . The guy who I interviewed who owns them did say that he 's gotten a lot of pleasure out of them , so ... Oh , yeah , you know this one ? This is a coffee made from a very unusual process . The luwak is an Asian Palm Civet . It 's a cat that lives in trees , and at night it comes down and it prowls the coffee plantations . And apparently it 's a very picky eater and it , you know , homes in on only the ripest coffee cherries . And then an enzyme in its digestive tract leeches into the beans , and people with the unenviable job of collecting these cats ' leavings then go through the forest collecting the , you know , results and processing it into coffee -- although you actually can buy it in the unprocessed form . That 's right . Unrelatedly -- ( Laughter ) Japan is doing crazy things with toilets . ( Laughter ) There is now a toilet that has an MP3 player in it . There 's one with a fragrance dispenser . There 's one that actually analyzes the contents of the bowl and transmits the results via email to your doctor . It 's almost like a home medical center -- and that is the direction that Japanese toilet technology is heading in . This one does not have those bells and whistles , but for pure functionality it 's pretty much the best -- the Neorest 600. And to try this -- I could n't get a loaner , but I did go into the Manhattan showroom of the manufacturer , Toto , and they have a bathroom off of the showroom that you can use , which I used . It 's fully automated -- you walk towards it , and the seat lifts . The seat is preheated . There 's a water jet that cleans you . There 's an air jet that dries you . You get up , it flushes by itself . The lid closes , it self-cleans . Not only is it a technological leap forward , but I really do believe it 's a bit of a cultural leap forward . I mean , a no hands , no toilet paper toilet . And I want to get one of these . ( Laughter ) This was another one I could not get a loaner of . Tom Cruise supposedly owns this bed . There 's a little plaque on the end that , you know , each buyer gets their name engraved on it . ( Laughter ) To try this one , the maker of it let me and my wife spend the night in the Manhattan showroom . Lights glaring in off the street , and we had to hire a security guard and all these things . But anyway , we had a great night 's sleep . And you spend a third of your life in bed . I do n't think it 's that bad of a deal . ( Laughter ) This was a fun one . This is the fastest street-legal car in the world and the most expensive production car . I got to drive this with a chaperone from the company , a professional race car driver , and we drove around the canyons outside of Los Angeles and down on the Pacific Coast Highway . And , you know , when we pulled up to a stoplight the people in the adjacent cars kind of gave us respectful nods . And it was really amazing . It was such a smooth ride . Most of the cars that I drive , if I get up to 80 they start to rattle . I switched lanes on the highway and the driver , this chaperone , said , " You know , you were just going 110 miles an hour . " And I had no idea that I was one of those obnoxious people you occasionally see weaving in and out of traffic , because it was just that smooth . And if I was a billionaire , I would get one . ( Laughter ) This is a completely gratuitous video I 'm just going to show of one of the pitfalls of advanced technology . This is Tom Cruise arriving at the " Mission : Impossible III " premiere . When he tries to open the door , you could call it " Mission : Impossible IV . " There was one object that I could not get my hands on , and that was the 1947 Cheval Blanc . The '47 Cheval Blanc is probably the most mythologized wine of the 20th century . And Cheval Blanc is kind of an unusual wine for Bordeaux in having a significant percentage of the Cabernet Franc grape . And 1947 was a legendary vintage , especially in the right bank of Bordeaux . And just together , that vintage and that chateau took on this aura that eventually kind of gave it this cultish following . But it 's 60 years old . There 's not much of it left . What there is of it left you do n't know if it 's real -- it 's considered to be the most faked wine in the world . Not that many people are looking to pop open their one remaining bottle for a journalist . So , I 'd about given up trying to get my hands on one of these . I 'd put out feelers to retailers , to auctioneers , and it was coming up empty . And then I got an email from a guy named Bipin Desai . Bipin Desai is a UC Riverside theoretical physicist who also happens to be the preeminent organizer of rare wine tastings , and he said , " I 've got a tasting coming up where we 're going to serve the '47 Cheval Blanc . " And it was going to be a double vertical -- it was going to be 30 vintages of Cheval Blanc , and 30 vintages of Yquem . And it was an invitation you do not refuse . I went . It was three days , four meals . And at lunch on Saturday , we opened the '47 . And you know , it had this fragrant softness , and it smelled a little bit of linseed oil . And then I tasted it , and it , you know , had this kind of unctuous , porty richness , which is characteristic of that wine -- that it sort of resembles port in a lot of ways . There were people at my table who thought it was , you know , fantastic . There were some people who were a little less impressed . And I was n't that impressed . And I do n't -- call my palate a philistine palate -- so it does n't necessarily mean something that I was n't impressed , but I was not the only one there who had that reaction . And it was n't just to that wine . Any one of the wines served at this tasting , if I 'd been served it at a dinner party , it would have been , you know , the wine experience of my lifetime , and incredibly memorable . But drinking 60 great wines over three days , they all just blurred together , and it became almost a grueling experience . And I just wanted to finish by mentioning a very interesting study which came out earlier this year from some researchers at Stanford and Caltech . And they gave subjects the same wine , labeled with different price tags . A lot of people , you know , said that they liked the more expensive wine more -- it was the same wine , but they thought it was a different one that was more expensive . But what was unexpected was that these researchers did MRI brain imaging while the people were drinking the wine , and not only did they say they enjoyed the more expensively labeled wine more -- their brain actually registered as experiencing more pleasure from the same wine when it was labeled with a higher price tag . Thank you . |