Wine Bloggers Conference 2015 – Pre activities, Vanderbilt Mansion Wine Room
The Wine Bloggers Conference officially begins on Thursday, August 13, 2015. We started our pre-conference activities on Saturday, August 8, in Hyde Park in the Hudson Valley. The photo above shows the Vanderbilt Mansion owned by Frederick Vanderbilt, the third generation of the wealthy railroad family. This is a story that surely will break the heart of any wine aficionado or collector of fine wines. In the basement of the Vanderbilt home there was a well-stocked wine room. Frederick Vanderbilt and his wife Louise did a large amount of entertaining. Guests always wore formal attire and of course fine food and wine were served. Upon Frederick’s death, he willed the entire estate to a wealthy niece. In 1940 she sold the Vanderbilt Estate to the U.S. Government for $1, on the urging of her neighbor, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. When we took the tour of this home, I asked what happened to the wine in the wine room. Our guide sadly reported that Frederick’s niece had poured all the wine down the sink. She felt it was nobody’s business to know what wine they drank and offered to their guests. My thoughts were that great French Champagne, Bordeaux and Burgundy wines had been in that wine room. What a wine tragedy!
What a waste of great wine. There could have been some great vintages of prime European estates. I think she could have been a tea totaler or had issues with her parents. She could have sold the wine and donated the profits to a charity.