By the This Day in Wine History Editorial Team · Researched, fact-checked & verified.
The story you may have heard is that a clumsy waiter destroyed the most expensive bottle of wine in the world. It is a good story, and almost none of it is true. There was no waiter. The man who shattered the 1787 Château Margaux — the bottle engraved “Th.J.” and said to have belonged to Thomas Jefferson — was its own owner. And the bottle he broke may never have been Jefferson’s at all.
Key takeaways
- In April 1989, wine merchant William Sokolin brought a 1787 “Jefferson” Château Margaux to a dinner at the Four Seasons in New York.
- He broke it himself — knocking it against a serving tray — not, as legend has it, a waiter.
- It was valued around $225,000 and had been offered for roughly $519,000; the insurer reportedly paid out less.
- The bottle came from Hardy Rodenstock’s “Jefferson” cache, later exposed as counterfeit — so the accident may have destroyed a fake before it could be tested.
One evening at the Four Seasons
In April 1989, the New York wine merchant William Sokolin carried a single bottle into a black-tie Château Margaux dinner at the Four Seasons restaurant in Manhattan. It was a 1787 Château Margaux, its glass engraved with the initials “Th.J.,” and it was believed to have belonged to Thomas Jefferson, the American founder and famous Bordeaux enthusiast who served as minister to France in the 1780s.
Sokolin was hoping to sell it. He had reportedly asked around $519,000 for the bottle, which was itself valued for insurance closer to $225,000; he had, by one account, already turned down an offer of $300,000. Whether he owned it outright or held it on consignment for another party depends on which account you read — the sources genuinely disagree.
What is not in dispute is what happened next. Moving through the room to show the bottle off, Sokolin struck it against a serving tray. It punched two holes in the antique glass. “I thought someone had spilled coffee,” he said afterward, before he realized most of a two-hundred-year-old wine had run out onto the floor. Guests, being wine people, reportedly dipped their fingers into the puddle to taste it. Sokolin went home.
Correcting the legend
Over the years the accident hardened into a tidy morality tale: a butter-fingered waiter, a priceless bottle, a half-million dollars gone in a heartbeat. It is repeated that way constantly. It is also wrong.
The contemporaneous reporting is consistent, and so is the eyewitness account of the Four Seasons’ own co-owner: the person holding the bottle, and the person who broke it, was Sokolin himself. No waiter, no tray-bearing server, no third party. The most expensive breakage in wine history was self-inflicted. The dollar figures wobble from telling to telling — valued at $225,000, asked at $519,000, insured payout reported lower still — but the culprit does not.
The fake at the bottom of the story
Here is where the smash stops being slapstick and starts being significant. The “Th.J.” bottles all traced back to one source: the German collector Hardy Rodenstock, who in the mid-1980s claimed to have found a cache of late-eighteenth-century Bordeaux bricked up in a Paris cellar, several engraved for Thomas Jefferson.
They caused a sensation. In 1985, a 1787 “Jefferson” Lafite from the same cache sold at Christie’s for £105,000 — then a world record for a single bottle — bought for the Forbes family. But the Jefferson attribution never held up. Curators at Monticello, Jefferson’s home, could find no evidence he had ever ordered the wine. Years later, the billionaire collector William Koch — who had bought four of the bottles — had them examined and sued Rodenstock; a U.S. court entered a default judgment, and an engraving expert concluded the “Th.J.” initials had been cut with modern tools.
Which casts the Four Seasons accident in a colder light. The Margaux that shattered on that floor was very probably a counterfeit — and because it shattered, it could never be tested. The clumsiest moment in wine history may have quietly destroyed a piece of evidence.
The Margaux that shattered was very probably a counterfeit — and because it shattered, it could never be tested.
Quick facts
- What: A 1787 Château Margaux engraved “Th.J.,” said to be Thomas Jefferson’s
- When: One evening in April 1989
- Where: A Château Margaux dinner at the Four Seasons, New York
- Who broke it: Owner-merchant William Sokolin — not a waiter — against a serving tray
- Value: Valued ~$225,000; offered at ~$519,000; insured payout reported lower
- Source of the bottle: Hardy Rodenstock’s “Jefferson” cache, later found to be counterfeit
- The irony: Breaking it meant it could never be authenticated
This day in wine history
- 5 December 1985 — A 1787 “Jefferson” Lafite from the same cache sells at Christie’s for £105,000, a record, to the Forbes family.
- April 1989 — William Sokolin shatters the 1787 “Jefferson” Margaux at the Four Seasons.
- 2000s — William Koch investigates and sues Hardy Rodenstock; a U.S. court enters a default judgment over the “Jefferson” bottles.
Frequently asked questions
Did a waiter really smash the Jefferson Margaux?
No. Despite the popular legend, the bottle was broken by its own owner, wine merchant William Sokolin, who knocked it against a serving tray at a 1989 dinner. There was no waiter.
Was the bottle really Thomas Jefferson’s?
Almost certainly not. It came from Hardy Rodenstock’s cache of “Th.J.” bottles, whose Jefferson attribution was rejected by Monticello and later found fraudulent in court, with the engraving judged to have been made by modern tools.
How much was it worth?
Accounts vary: it was valued around $225,000 for insurance, offered for roughly $519,000, and the insured payout was reported lower still. Treat the numbers as approximate.
Why does the breakage matter beyond the money?
Because the bottle was very likely counterfeit, and destroying it meant it could never be tested — the accident erased a piece of physical evidence at the very moment such bottles were coming under scrutiny.
Read more
For more on wine’s long war with the counterfeiter, read about the history of wine fraud, or explore other pivotal episodes in our Turning Points in Wine History collection.
Further reading
As an Amazon Associate, This Day in Wine History earns from qualifying purchases. Book links are affiliate links; cover images are used for identification.
Benjamin Wallace
The Jefferson bottles and the world’s most expensive wine fraud.
Peter Hellman
The rise and fall of counterfeiter Rudy Kurniawan, who forged rare vintages.
Sources
- Associated Press, “Trader Breaks 1787 Bottle of Wine” (April 1989), via Deseret News — contemporaneous news of record. deseret.com
- Wine Spectator, “Collectors Battle Fraudulent Wines” — on Koch v. Rodenstock and the Monticello doubts. winespectator.com
- Decanter, “Fooling the experts: Forgeries and Jefferson” — on the Monticello findings and the 1985 sale. decanter.com
- The Drinks Business, “Hardy Rodenstock dies” — on the cache’s provenance and the 1985 Christie’s record. thedrinksbusiness.com
- World of Fine Wine, review of The Billionaire’s Vinegar — on Sokolin’s purchase and the insurance payout. worldoffinewine.com
- Benjamin Wallace, The Billionaire’s Vinegar (Crown, 2008) — the book-length investigation. penguinrandomhouse.com
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