DAN'S PAPERS, January 9, 2009 Page 13 www.danshamptons.com
Christian Wolffer, 70 Hamptons Icon Killed by a Speedboat while Swimming in Brazil By Dan Rattiner Christian Wolffer, the founder and owner of the Wolffer Estate Vineyards in Bridgehampton, was killed in Brazil on New Year’s Eve, struck by a speedboat while swimming off a beach in Brazil. He was 70. Wolffer was a leader in the grand tradition, an adventurer, a developer, a millionaire, a man with vision and imagination, who lived life to the fullest. Dashing and handsome, he was also a horseman, a lover of women, a world traveler and a good friend to all. He was best known here in the Hamptons for having purchased about 200 acres 20 years ago, and, with unerring skill, transforming it into one of the premiere wineries in this community. Before Wolffer, there were wineries on the North Fork, but none in the Hamptons. Two before him had
tried and failed. Some said the weather was different here and a winery could not be done successfully on the South Fork. Wolffer proved them wrong, as his lush vineyards, visible just north of Montauk Highway between Town Line and Sagg Main, proved. On his property, he also built what is arguably the most beautiful winery building ever constructed here, a reproduction of a French chateau, where, among other things, fundraisers and weddings often take place amidst the most elegant background imaginable. He also built there the 100-acre Wolffer Estate Stables, where employees provide boarding, schooling, breeding and instruction. Wolffer was born in 1939 in Hamburg and as a small boy lived through the bombing of his city during World War II. At 17, he worked as a
trainee at a bank, and then as an employee of an import/export company. He later worked in Mexico, where he managed the sales force for a German chemical company, then for a European printing company in Latin America. He spoke six languages. In 1971, at the age of 32, he moved to Canada, where he began developing real estate properties, primarily building indoor tennis and squash centers, funded by European investors he knew. Soon he was developing properties in countries all over the world. He often traveled as much as 200,000 miles a year. In 1987, Wolffer moved to the United States, setting up a world headquarters in a small office building on the corner of Butter Lane (continued on page 20)
BLAGOJEVICH IS GUILTY OF TELLING THE TRUTH By Dan Rattiner While the big headlines this week were about the governor of Illinois loudly demanding compensation in exchange for his appointing someone to Barack Obama’s vacant senate seat, a smaller story unfolded here in New York State that might shed a little light on it. Malcolm Smith, the idealistic Bronx legislator who is Governor David Patterson’s nominee for State majority leader, was forced by Senate Democrats to hold a meeting in secret with three
democratic dissident senators who said they could not support Smith unless he makes certain concessions to them. It turns out that without these three, a republican could be named majority leader. The secret meeting was held, with the Governor in attendance, and when it was over, it was announced there had been an agreement and the three dissidents would receive top posts. The next day, the deal unraveled. Smith said that after sleeping on it, “it became clear to me
this was about personal interest and not about the reform that the senate democrats ran on.” One of the three dissidents, Pedro Espada Jr., who would have been given a newly activated high post said, “Malcolm Smith is not ready for prime time.” So what was the big crime that will very likely send Governor Rod Blagojevich to jail? He said aloud what sometimes goes on in secret. He must be crazy. He will get the maximum.