I'm just going to play a brief video clip.
我現在播放一段短片。
On the fifth of December 1985, a bottle of 1787 Lafitte was sold for 105,000 pounds -- nine times the previous world record. 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. Chateau Lafitte is one of the greatest wines in the world, the prince of any wine cellar.
五萬英鎊 1985年的十二月五號，一瓶1787年的拉菲特葡萄酒被售出。 售價為十萬五千英鎊， 九倍於前世界紀錄。 福布斯先生。 買家是基普·福布斯， 某位二十世紀最聲名顯赫的百萬富翁之子。 這瓶酒的上一任擁有者是 十八世紀最狂熱的葡萄酒愛好者之一。 尚圖·拉菲特是全世界頂級葡萄酒之一， 任何酒窖中的極品。
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 wouldn'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.
班傑明·瓦倫斯：現在，這段影片紀錄了 堪稱現代葡萄酒世界持續時間最長的秘密。? 而這秘密的存在起因於一位名為哈迪·魯登斯托克的紳士。 1985年，他對自己在葡萄酒界的朋友們宣布 他有一個令人難以置信的發現 一些在巴黎的工人們砸破了一堵磚牆 從而發現了這些被匿藏的葡萄酒 這似乎是托馬斯·傑斐遜的財產。年份1787、1784 他不願意公開確切的數量 他也不會公布建築物的確切地址 他更不會公布具體的擁有人姓名 這個秘密持續了20年。
It finally began to get resolved in 2019 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.
最終，在2024年有人揭開了謎底。 比爾·寇奇是一位佛羅里達的億萬富翁，擁有四瓶傑斐遜葡萄酒。 他對此事開始質疑。 他最終用一百多萬美元聘請了一些前FBI 和前蘇格蘭場偵探徹查這一事件。 如今有充分的證據表明哈迪·魯登斯托克是個詐欺犯， 那些傑斐遜葡萄酒也是偽造的。
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?
但在那20年裡 這些酒被高價售出 並被給予葡萄酒界中極高的評價 我想人們都想要相信 全世界最貴的酒一定就是最好的， 肯定是世間最稀有的。 我開始逐漸變得狂熱於追求一個問題的答案 那就是：為什麼人們願意為葡萄酒或其他的東西 揮霍大筆金錢? 這些人是否活得比我好?
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,
所以，我決心尋求答案。 憑藉一份我常投稿的雜誌慷慨贊助 我決定在數十個大類中 選出最好的，最貴的或人們最想要的事物加以體驗， 你可以想像，這個過程何其痛苦
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 couldn't finish it. I was really happy when I was done.
這裡是第一件。 很多你在美國見到的神戶牛肉不是真品 那可能是和牛， 但不是原產於阿帕拉契山脈的日本兵庫。 在美國只有很少的幾個地方可以品嘗真正的神戶牛肉， 其中之一就是位於洛杉磯，沃爾福岡·普克的飯店，CUT。 我去了那裡，點了價值160美元的8盎司肋眼牛排。 上菜了，牛排很小。 我當時氣壞了。 這就值160美元? 然後我嘗了一口， 我但願這牛排更小點，因為神戶牛肉太肥膩了。 味道就像鵝肝- 甚至不能算牛排。 我幾乎就吃不完。 當我終於吃光時，我可真開心。
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.
現在這張照片是這個項目的攝影師拍攝的 不知道為什麼，在很多照片裡放上了他的狗。 所以你們會一直看到它。 我猜，你已經知道 我覺得那牛排不值。
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.
白松露 世間最貴的食材 為此，我去了位於曼哈頓的馬利奧 巴塔利餐廳， 它位於德爾 泊斯托。 服務生拿著白松露和刮刀出來後， 他把松露刮成碎屑，撒在我的意大利麵上，然後對我說 “先生要一些松露嗎?” 白松露的迷人之處在於它的香味。 不是口感，也不是材質 氣味才是關鍵。 當這些白珍珠色的小片落到麵條上， 一股醉人的，香味濃郁的松露味就飄了起來。 10秒後，沒了。 之後就只是麵條上醜陋的小白碎片， 這樣，他們的任務完成了， 可對於我，這正是一大遺憾。 還有其他的例子，都是逐一讓我失望。
Yeah. The magazine wouldn't pay for me to go there.
是的， 那家雜誌社可不願出錢讓我去那。
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.
但他們讓我去參觀了。 這間酒店套房有四千三百平方尺， 有360度景觀房， 四個陽台。 由建築師I.M.Pei設計 配備勞斯萊斯和司機。 有專署酒窖，免費任你享用。 我參觀的時候，我還高興地見到酒窖里有“第一樂章“(一款名酒)。 酒店一晚房價為三萬美元。
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.
這是用含銀的納米微粒製成的香皂 有抗菌作用 今天早上為準備這次演講，我用它洗了臉 有點癢，很好聞。 可我不得不說 今天沒有人誇過我的臉乾淨。
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 don'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.
再說說我的牛仔褲，也沒有人誇過。 我的這條是GQ雜誌的春裝款——我自己買的——但讓我告訴你， 不只你們沒有注意到這條褲子， 迄今為止從買到穿了這么久 沒有任何人注意過 我不認為被人誇獎與否 是衡量物品價值的標準， 但我認為，就時尚品而言 那是一個合理的標準。 據說，這一款做工精良。 由人手挑選的辛巴威有機棉花 用梭織機織出 24次手工蘸染成自然靛青色 但是沒人讚美。
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.
阿曼多.曼尼以前是一名電影製片人， 他用托斯卡尼某處斜坡上特產的橄欖樹製造了這種橄欖油 而且竭盡全力將其真空避光保存。 他用有色小玻璃瓶 並在橄欖油上層注入氣體。 事實上，每製成一批 他總是做分子分析，還把結果公布在網上 你可以在網上通過批號 看到油酚的演變 並測出新鮮度 我混和了其他五種橄欖油，和這種一起讓20個人做盲測。 這種橄欖油口味獨特、有趣。 色澤清亮，非常辛辣。 但在盲測結果中，它排名最尾。 排名最佳的橄欖油 是一瓶在我的灶台上放了六個月的 超市橄欖油 Whole Foods 365。
A recurring theme is that a lot of these things are from Japan --you'll start to notice
你可能會注意到 這個主題很多相關的東西都來自日本。
I don't play golf, so I couldn'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 ...
我不打高爾夫，所以我無法實際體驗， 但我採訪了一個擁有這套球具的人 我是說，即使是為這套球具做市場推廣的人都會說 這套球具的四軸桿身可有效減少揮桿速度損失 打出的球可以更遠——但是他們也會說， 你用這些球具不一定打得出等價於五萬七千美元的表現。 你只是付錢買些那些閃亮的外表， 而那可是由黃金和鉑金製成的。 我所採訪的球具主人倒是說 他從中所獲“樂趣“無窮，你可以想到。。。
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, hones 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.
喔，你們知道這個? 這是一種用非同尋常的方法製成的咖啡 魯瓦克是亞洲小型麝香貓。 這種貓生活在樹上， 夜間它會偷偷爬下樹，偷吃咖啡樹上的果實。 很顯然，它們很挑食 只選那些最成熟的咖啡果。 而咖啡豆在它的消化道中可以吸取一種酶， 然後擔任最不令人羨慕工作的人們會收集這些貓的糞便， 挑揀收集來的“成果“， 將其加工成咖啡。 雖然你也可以買沒加過工的。 對了。
Japan is doing crazy things with toilets.
日本人瘋狂地搞他們的廁所。
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 couldn'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.
這一個有MP3播放器， 這個有芳香噴霧， 這個則分析馬桶里的承載物， 然後用電子郵件的方式把分析結果發給你的醫生。 幾乎就是一個家庭醫療中心 而這就是日本廁所科技的發展方向。 這個既沒鈴鐺也沒口哨 但就純功能性而言，這個是最好的-鼎新600 因為沒人願意借我馬桶，為了體驗這個， 我只好去了Toto位於曼哈頓的展覽室。 展廳旁就有一個廁所，你可以使用。我試過了 它是全自動的-你走過去，坐墊就升起來 坐墊是預熱的， 有水噴出來幫你洗乾淨， 再有空氣把你吹乾 你起身，它就自動沖水。 蓋子合上，它就自動清潔。 這不只是技術的進步， 我真覺得在文明程度上都是領先的 我是指，不用手，不用廁紙 我想要一個。
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.
這是另一個我借不到的。 湯姆·克魯斯就該有這樣一張床 床尾有個小匾 買家可以把自己的名字刻上去。
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 don't think it's that bad of a deal.
為了試這個，製造者讓我和我妻子在曼哈頓的展覽室待了一晚上，街上燈火通明，我們不得不雇個保全，可不管怎么說，我們那晚睡得很好，而人的一生有三分之一的時間在床上，我覺得這個床還比較值。
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.
這個很搞笑 這是全世界最快的可以合法在街上開的車， 也是最貴的量產車。 我得和該公司的試車員一起試駕， 他是職業賽車手， 我們在洛杉磯外的峽谷中駕駛， 又上了太平洋海岸高速公路。 你知道嗎，當我們在紅燈前停下時， 附近車裡的人對我們佩服得直點頭。 實在太棒了。 如此流暢， 我所開過的車大都在加速到80嘜時就吱嘎作響 我在高速公路上換道時，陪駕車手說 “你知道嗎?你剛轉到110嘜每小時“ 我自己都不知道我成了那種討厭的人， 在車河中鑽進鑽出， 因為這車實在太順手了。 如果我是億萬富翁，我一定買一輛。
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.
我現在要播放一段純屬意外錄下的 關於高科技弊端的影片。 湯姆·克魯斯到達"不可能的任務3"首映現場。 他開門時 上演了一場"不可能的任務4"。
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 don'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.
這瓶1947年產Cheval Blanc 是我可望而不可及的 這是20世紀最具傳奇的葡萄酒 它是極不尋常的波爾多紅酒 主要用品麗珠葡萄釀成 1947是波爾多右岸地區 紅酒具有傳奇色彩的年份 加上白馬莊園， 兩者的光環 最終引來一批崇拜者 但這種酒有60年了 也所剩無幾。 即便留下來，也難以辨別是真是假。 他被公認為世上造假率最高的酒。 沒有人願意為一個記者 打開自己珍藏的所剩無幾的美酒。
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 U.C. 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.
我打算放棄試這酒的念頭， 因為零售商，拍賣商那我都試過了， 全部落空。 之後，我收到一封來自Bipin Desai的電子郵件。 Bipin Desai是加州大學河岸分校的理論物理學家 他碰巧也是了不起的稀有品酒會的組織人， 他說：“我要辦個品酒會， 可以嘗到47年的Cheval Blanc， 而且還不止於此， 屆時會有30種其他年份的Cheval Blanc， 以及30種年份的Yquem. 這實在太吸引人了。 我去了。
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 wasn't that impressed. And I don't -- call my palate a philistine palate -- so it doesn't necessarily mean something that I wasn't impressed, but I was not the only one there who had that reaction. And it wasn'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.
3天，4頓大餐。 在那個周六的午餐時，我們打開了47年的Cheval Blanc。 它香氣柔和， 聞起來有點像亞麻子油。 然後我嘗了酒， 酒的口感豐富，如同帶油的甜葡萄酒。 這就是其特質 很多方面類似葡萄牙甜葡萄酒 席間，有人大加讚譽 有人不以為然 我也不覺有太驚人之處 我是大眾口味型 並非我不識貨 而且也不只我一人有此反映 也不只針對那種酒 那天品的所有酒都一般 如果我在某次晚宴上喝到這種酒， 我一生都會回味無窮。 但在3天裡嘗遍60種頂級紅酒 口味就全混了 而且還成了一種受罪。
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.
我打算以一個有趣的研究作為結尾 這是年初由斯坦福和加州工學院的研究人員發表的 他們在相同的紅酒上 掛了不同的標價 如你所知，很多人 說他們喜歡標價較貴的酒 酒其實都一樣， 只是他們不知道。 但意想不到的是這些研究人員 在研究對象喝酒時對他們進行了腦部核磁共掙掃描 他們不只是說更喜歡較貴的酒 他們的大腦也顯示更快樂 一樣的酒，只是標價更高。