Noble Rot

by William Echikson

"For wine lovers the world over, Bordeaux is the virtual center of the universe, and for years the traditions of winemaking have remained unchanged there. But in the past two decades, innovators have stormed the bastions, making their mark - and their fortunes - modernizing the production and marketing of wine. Tinkering with established techniques of cultivation and fermentation, this new breed of winemakers is producing richer, fruit-driven wines that can be drunk younger than the more traditional Lafites and Latours.". "William Echikson introduces us to the players central to the changes sweeping Bordeaux: the noble owners of Chateau d'Yquem engaged in a soap-opera feud; a stonemason turned winemaker whose wine, made in a garage, sells for $100 a bottle; the Maryland-based critic Robert Parker, whose opinion routinely makes or breaks a wine; and the New World operations that have used branding and mass-production techniques to undercut Bordeaux's supremacy. Echikson unravels the mys