Never piss off a billionaire

From the Los Angeles Times:

William Koch (right) didn't mean to turn the wine world upside down.

The Palm Beach, FL, billionaire developed a taste for wine as a young man and, as he accumulated wealth, built an extensive wine collection. Among that collection: a 1787 Lafite Bordeaux with Thomas Jefferson's initials etched into the bottle.

Except, he says, it's a fake.

"I thought that I had a piece of history, a piece of America's most important history," Koch said, holding up the bottle in his wine cellar, which contains about 40,000 bottles.

His response to the alleged fakery was unheard of in the wine world: He sued the seller.

Since that initial lawsuit, he has filed four more and is working on another. He says he aims to clean up an industry where a single bottle can fetch more than $100,000.

Now, collectors are warier. Some auction houses are shunning him.

And the wine world hasn't been the same.

[Go here for the full story.]

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