Christopher "Kip" Forbes () is vice chairman of the

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...

Publishing company. He attended St. Mark's School in

Southborough, Massachusetts Southborough is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. It incorporates the villages of Cordaville, Fayville, and Southville. Its name is often informally shortened to Southboro, a usage seen on many area signs and maps, though ...

, and

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

. His brother is

Steve Forbes Malcolm Stevenson Forbes Jr. (; born July 18, 1947) is an American publishing executive and politician who is the editor-in-chief of ''Forbes'', a business magazine. He is the son of longtime ''Forbes'' publisher Malcolm Forbes and the grandso ...

, who has made multiple runs for the U.S. presidency and written some in-depth political and economic narratives. Always interested in art and collecting, he worked with his father,

Malcolm Forbes Malcolm Stevenson Forbes (August 19, 1919 – February 24, 1990) was an American entrepreneur most prominently known as the publisher of ''Forbes'' magazine, founded by his father B. C. Forbes. He was known as an avid promoter of capitalis ...

restoring the

Château de Balleroy The Château de Balleroy is a seventeenth-century château in Balleroy, Normandy. Outlook The fief of Balleroy, near the forest and abbey of Cerisy, was acquired on April 1, 1600 by Jean de Choisy, wine supplier at the court of Henry IV. The ...

Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

, and Old Battersea House in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Mr. Forbes has written numerous books and catalogues about art and collecting, including ''Fabergé: The Forbes Collection'', co-authored with Robyn Tromeur and published by Hugh Lauter Levin. On December 5, 1985, Kip Forbes paid the highest price ever recorded for a single bottle of wine.

Hardy Rodenstock Hardy Rodenstock (7 December 1941 in Marienwerder (Kwidzyn) – 19 May 2018 in Oberaudorf; legal name Meinhard Görke) was a publisher and manager of pop and Schlager music in Germany and a prominent wine collector, connoisseur, and trader, wit ...

(Meinhard Görke) put one of the 'recently discovered' "Th. J." (

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was previously the natio ...

) bottles up for auction at Christie's in London: a bottle of 1787 Château Lafite engraved "1787 Lafitte Th. J." The bottles had been found in a walled-up old cellar,Keefe, Patrick Radden, ''The Jefferson Bottles'', The New Yorker, September 3, 2007
p. 7 and were

engraved Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an in ...

with vintage years from the late eighteenth century. This had in itself been an interesting find for a collector of old wines, but the bottles also were engraved with the initials, "Th. J.", which was taken as an indication that they had belonged to

. Jefferson was an active

oenophile Oenophilia ( ; Greek) is a love ('' philia'') of wine ('' oinos''). In the strictest sense, ''oenophilia'' describes a disciplined devotion to wine, accompanying strict traditions of consumption and appreciation. In a general sense however, ''oe ...

and wine collector, who spent much time in

during the 1780s and whose interest in wine is well documented.J. Robinson (ed), ''"The Oxford Companion to Wine"'', Third Edition, pp. 375-376, Oxford University Press 2006; The auction catalogue simply listed the value as "inestimable", and it was sold for 105,000

pound sterling Sterling (abbreviation: stg; Other spelling styles, such as STG and Stg, are also seen. ISO code: GBP) is the currency of the United Kingdom and nine of its associated territories. The pound ( sign: £) is the main unit of sterling, and ...

, which as of 2007, still remains the worldwide auction record for a single bottle of wine.Keefe, Patrick Radden, ''The Jefferson Bottles''
''The New Yorker'', September 3, 2007, p. 1 Forbes was bidding against Marvin Shanken of ''

Wine Spectator ''Wine Spectator'' is an American lifestyle magazine that focuses on wine and wine culture, and gives out ratings to certain types of wine. It publishes 15 issues per year with content that includes news, articles, profiles, and general entertain ...

'' Magazine, with

Michael Broadbent John Michael Broadbent, MW (2 May 1927 – 17 March 2020) was a British wine critic, writer and auctioneer in a capacity as a Master of Wine. He was an authority on wine tasting and old wines. Career Broadbent was born in Yorkshire. He was edu ...

handling the

gavel A gavel is a small ceremonial mallet commonly made of hardwood, typically fashioned with a handle. It can be used to call for attention or to punctuate rulings and proclamations and is a symbol of the authority and right to act officially in the ...

at the auction. Rodenstock is currently in court charged with perpetrating large-scale wine fraud. It is alleged that the Thomas Jefferson bottles are fake, and multiple experts and various pieces of evidence apparently support this conclusion. Rodenstock has refused to allow the German magazine '' Stern'' to have the wine's veracity tested at its expense. A book, ''The Billionaire's Vinegar'', has been published about the affair, although it has been withdrawn from the UK market following legal action by Michael Broadbent. The film rights to both the book and a ''

New Yorker New Yorker or ''variant'' primarily refers to: * A resident of the State of New York ** Demographics of New York (state) * A resident of New York City ** List of people from New York City * ''The New Yorker'', a magazine founded in 1925 * '' The ...

'' article about the scandal have been purchased.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Forbes, Christopher Living people St. Mark's School (Massachusetts) alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Princeton University alumni Christopher