Us And Them. No Not East And West This Time

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This time it's the rich and the plebs, just what kind of money does someone have that they can piss eighteen thousand pounds away on a goddamn bottle of wine?

But that's not the story.

The moment a diner sent back an £18,000 bottle of wine - for being 'fake'

It was a moment to make the most experienced sommelier gasp with horror.

Normally when a favoured wealthy customer orders a magnum of Pétrus 1961, appreciative purrs of pleasure are expected to follow.

Not just from the drinkers. There will be a profit of several thousand pounds on a bottle costing as much as a large family car.

But this time the usually exquisite claret was returned untasted with angry accusations that it was a fake.

This was the hugely embarrassing scene at the Michelin-starred Zafferano in Knightsbridge earlier this month when a party of British and Italian diners asked for the 1961 — regarded as one of the finest wines ever made — to go with their meal.more