I'm just going to play a brief video clip.
我想先為大家播放一段短片
Video: 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. Château Lafitte is one of the greatest wines in the world, the prince of any wine cellar.
5 萬英鎊 1985 年 12 月 5 日,一瓶 1787 年拉斐特紅酒 以 10 萬 5 千英鎊,高出先前世界記錄 9 倍的高價售出 富比士先生 買主是奇普‧富比士 他的父親是 20 世紀最豪奢的百萬富翁之一 這瓶酒的原主竟然是 18 世紀最活躍的品酒大師 拉斐特堡是全世界最頂級的佳釀 公認的酒中王子
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.
好了,這大概是這個事件現存的全部影像資料 從此開啟了當代酒界歷史最悠久的懸案 懸案的始作俑者名叫哈迪‧羅斯塔克 他在 1985 年告訴他的酒界友人 自己發現了一件大事 幾個巴黎工人在拆牆的時候 恰巧挖出藏在牆內的酒 正是湯瑪士‧傑佛遜的藏酒,年份 1787、1784 他不願公開到底有幾瓶 也不說出建築物的位置 甚至不願透露建築物的所有人 就這樣保密了 20 年
It finally began to get resolved in 2005 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.
直到 2005 年,終於因為這個人有了一線曙光 擁有 4 瓶傑佛遜藏酒的佛州億萬富翁比爾‧寇克 起了疑心 最後他花了超過 100 萬美元雇用前 FBI 和前蘇格蘭警場探員找出真相 現在已經有足夠的證據證明羅斯塔克是個騙子 所謂的傑佛遜藏酒根本就是假的
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?
但是在這 20 年間 有好些聲譽卓著的酒界人士 被這些酒吸引,為之癡迷 我想,他們想相信世上最貴的酒 必然就是世上最好的酒 一定是世上最稀有的酒 我對此越來越有興趣,甚至抱著些窺視的心態 我想知道,為什麼有人花這樣驚人的金錢 不只在買酒,還有其他許多事物上? 另外,這些人的人生是不是比我還美好?
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, as you can imagine.
因此我踏上尋找答案的旅程 和我合作了一段時間的雜誌社則給我慷慨的支持 我決定體驗最頂級、昂貴、最令人渴望的事物 這些事物廣及 10 幾大類 正如大家所想的,這個旅程真累人
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
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.
這就是第一項 大家在美國看到的許多神戶牛肉都不是真的 可能是和牛肉沒錯 但產地卻不是日本兵庫縣和歌山脈 美國很少有地方可以吃到真的神戶牛肉 其中之一就在洛杉磯,渥夫康‧帕克的餐廳 CUT 我在那點了 160 美元的肋眼牛排 送上來的時候,肉好小 我太生氣了 拜託,160 美元才這一點? 然後我吃了一口 真恨不得它能再小一點,神戶牛排實在是太肥膩了 就像鵝肝醬,根本就不像牛排 我幾乎吃不完 終於吃完時我真的很快樂
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
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.
這個計畫的攝影師 不知道為什麼在很多照片上放了他的狗 所以,你們會一直看到牠 我想這也傳達了 我並不覺得物有所值
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 世界上以重量計最奢華的珍饈 為了體驗,我到 Mario Batali 餐廳 餐廳在曼哈頓 Del Posto 服務生拿著白松露和削刀走到面前, 削了一些到我的義大利麵,然後問 先生要一些松露嗎? 白松露迷人之處就是香味 其實不是口味、也不是口感 迷人之處在氣味 那些白色珍珠光澤的薄片落到麵上 一股吸引人、美妙、帶點堅果、蘑菇香的氣味飄上來 10 秒後,就沒了 只剩下那些醜醜的小碎片在意大利麵上 它們就這樣功成身退 而我,恐怕得承認自己滿失望的 令人失望的東西還多著呢!
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
Yeah. The magazine wouldn't pay for me to go there.
對… 這個雜誌社不願意幫我買單
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
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.
不過他們還是帶我逛了一圈 這個房間面積 4,300 平方英呎 有 360 度的環繞景觀 4 個陽台 由貝聿銘設計 附帶專屬勞斯萊斯跟司機 還有隨你喝的免費專屬酒窖 逛的時候我還真看到裡面有一些美國名酒 Opus One,不錯! 住一晚要價 3 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.
這是塊奈米銀粒子做成的肥皂 有抗菌功效 今天早上準備到這裡的時候,我就是用它洗臉 感覺就有些癢癢的,而且很香 不過,我倒是要說 目前為止還沒人讚美我的臉好乾淨
(Laughter)
(大笑)
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.
但是,也沒有人讚美我的牛仔褲 這可是條上過 GQ 春季號雜誌的牛仔褲,而且是我「自己買的」 不但沒有得到在座任何一個人的讚美 還從來沒有人讚美過 我都已經買來而且穿了好幾個月了 我不覺得別人的讚美與否 足以定義事物的價值 不過,我想至少在時尚產物或衣著上 那是一個合理的判別基準吧 而且,它可是很費工的 使用手摘的有機辛巴威棉花 在織布機上織成 然後使用天然靛藍染料經 24 道手染程序染成 不過,沒人稱讚
(Laughter)
(大笑,觀眾有人大叫「好看喔!」)
Thank you.
謝謝!
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.
阿曼度‧曼尼不當製片之後開始做橄欖油 他做的油只用托斯卡尼某片山坡上的橄欖 而且費心不讓橄欖油受光和氧氣損害 他用小瓶子、瓶身還塗黑 最後在剩餘空間裝入鈍氣 而且竟然每產出一批 就定期做分子檢測,在網路上公布結果 你可以上網搜尋自己的批號 看看油酚的形成狀況 靠這樣判別新鮮度 我混入其他 5 種橄欖油,請 20 個人蒙眼品嚐 這種橄欖油味道還好,滿有趣的味道 非常青澀、非常辛辣 不過,在蒙眼品嚐中,卻是最後一名 第一名的橄欖油 竟然是一直放在我爐子邊氧化的 Whole Foods 365 都放 6 個月了
(Laughter)
(大笑)
A recurring theme is that a lot of these things are from Japan -- you'll start to notice.
很多類似的奢華事物都來自日本 大家慢慢開始注意到
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,所以不能實際體驗 不過,我採訪了擁有這套球具的人 即使是行銷這套球具的人都說 它的 4 軸桿身可將揮桿速度損失降到最低 因此球會飛得更遠,不過他們也會坦白說 用它不一定打得出 57,000 美元的等值表現 花錢買的是閃亮的外表 而那可是由純金和白金貼製成的 我訪問的球具主人倒是說了 自己很享受用它們打球,所以啦…
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,對,你們知道這是什麼? 只是一種經過奇特處理的咖啡 Luwak 是一種亞洲麝香貓 這種貓住在樹上 晚上爬下來吃咖啡樹上的果實 很顯然,牠們很挑 只吃最熟的咖啡果 然後牠們消化道中的酵素附著在咖啡果上 由擔任最不令人羨慕工作的「扒糞者」 到樹林裡收集成果 然後加工處理成咖啡 要買未經加工的也行 對,就是這樣
Unrelatedly --
換個話題…
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
Japan is doing crazy things with toilets.
日本人對馬桶做了一些瘋狂的事
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
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.
現在馬桶可以內建 MP3 播放器 有的則有芳香機 有的可以檢驗馬桶內容物 然後用電子郵件把報告傳給你的醫生 簡直就是個家用醫學中心 這就是日本衛浴科技目前的走向 這是不玩那些花招 不過在功能上無與倫比的 Neorest 600 為了體驗這個,因為沒有人願意借我馬桶 只好跑一趟製造商 Toto 展場旁就有這樣的廁所,所以我去試了 馬桶全自動,一靠近就升起座墊 座墊預熱就緒 還有幫你清潔的水柱 幫你烘乾的氣流 一起身,就會自動沖水 蓋上馬桶蓋,自動清潔 這不只是科技的一大步 我真的認為這還是文化的一大步 我指的是,不用動手也不用衛生紙的廁所 我想要一組!
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
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.
這個也沒人肯借我試用 湯姆克魯斯據說就有一套這種床 床尾有個徽章 買家可以把名字刻在上面
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
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.
為了體驗,製造商讓我跟我老婆 在曼哈頓的展場過了一夜 街燈從窗戶透進來 我們則必須請保全,做一堆安全措施 不過,當晚真的睡得不錯 既然一生 3 分之 1 的時間都在床上 我想還滿值得的
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
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.
這個很好玩 這是世上最快的公路用汽車 也是最貴的量產車 我在車商的試車員陪同下體驗 他是職業賽車手 我們在洛杉磯外的峽谷中穿梭 一直開到太平洋海岸高速公路 就像大家所想的,每次停紅燈 隔壁車駕駛似乎都對我們佩服的點一下頭 真是太妙了! 一路開起來超順 我開過的大部分車子只要加速到 80 就開始喘氣 我在高速公路上切換了車道,旁邊的賽車手駕駛說 知道嗎?你剛飆到時速 110 英哩 我從來不知道自己竟然是那種大家不時遇到的討厭鬼 在車陣裡鑽進鑽出 因為實在開得太順了 要是我是億萬富翁,我一定買一台
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
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."
接下來這段附帶影片 顯示尖端科技的缺點 湯姆克魯斯抵達不可能的任務 3 首映會現場 走過去開車門 我們叫這個「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.
這個我一直找不到 1947 年的白馬 47 年的白馬大概是 20 世紀最傳奇的美酒 白馬是波爾多的稀有美酒 因為使用大量卡本內.弗朗葡萄 1947 更是傳奇的年份 尤其對波爾多右岸的酒莊來說 年份和酒莊為這支酒憑添光環 甚至到了最後有些膜拜的意味 不過這支酒已經 60 年了 所剩不多 真的留下來的,也無法辨別真假 因此成了公認的世上造假率最高的酒 沒有多少人願意為一個記者 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.
就這樣,在我快要放棄這瓶酒時 零售商、拍賣商都試過了 全部落空 就在這時,我竟然收到 Bipin Desai 的電子郵件 他是加州大學河岸分校的理論物理學家 恰好也是著名的稀有美酒品酒會主辦人 他告訴我近期有個品酒會 會中供應 47 年的白馬 而且可以品嚐兩個酒莊 會有 30 個不同年份的白馬 和 30 個年份的伊剛 這真是個傻子才會拒絕的邀請 所以我去了
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.
品酒會歷時 3 天、供應 4 餐 我們在星期六的午餐開了 47 年白馬 就這樣,聞到它溫和的醇香 帶點亞麻籽油的味道 然後我嚐了一些 有些溫潤、波特酒般的豐潤甜美 這就是這支酒的特色 喝起來真的很像波特酒 跟我同桌的一些人認為太好喝了 當然也有人覺得沒那麼好喝 我則覺得沒那麼好喝 而且我不...因為我覺得自己嘴挑 所以我的「差強人意」評價可能不準 不過,還有其他人和我有同感 不只是對這支酒 對品酒會所有的酒都是如此 要是在晚餐派對中喝到它 那就會是我一生難忘的品酒經驗 不過在 3 天內喝遍 60 種好酒 那些酒最後喝起來都一樣了 最後都快喝膩了
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.
最後我想提一個非常有趣的研究 今年年初剛由史丹佛和加州理工的研究人員發表 他們讓受試者喝相同的酒 不過貼的標價不同 就這樣,很多人覺得 比較愛喝標價較高的酒 實際上酒是一樣的,不過受試者覺得 貴的那瓶是不同的酒 出乎意料的是這些研究人員 竟然在受試者喝酒的當下做 MRI 腦部造影 發現他們不只是嘴上說比較享受標價高的酒 他們的大腦還真的反映出較高的歡愉感受 對那瓶其實完全相同只是標價較高的酒
Thank you.
謝謝各位