The Complete Bordeaux: The Wines, The Chateaux, The People

Bordeaux is more than a wine. It is an interconnected universe of interests, all focusing on the fate of millions of vines as they negotiate their way through an uncertain climate, beset by pests and maladies. Then comes their harvesting and transformation into glorious wine. Only at that point does an army of brokers, merchants, journalists, PR men and women, consultants, and speculators come into the picture. On the sidelines stand squads of researchers and academics, restaurateurs and catering managers, label designers, coopers, closure technicians. All social classes are involved: a prince here and there, barons and counts galore, super-rich industrialist proprietors, slick merchants, struggling peasant farmers, and doughty vignerons, braving the December winds to prune the slumbering vines. Wine, and wine alone, the pleasure it gives, the wealth it generates, is the focus of this relentless labour and attention.