Tipple trouble

IF YOU have more money than you know what to do with, one good way to get through it is to buy expensive bottles of wine. Consumers have always known that the most prestigious and pricey wines are made by the top châteaux of Bordeaux—names such as Margaux, Lafite and Mouton-Rothschild—which are sanctified by generations of tradition. In the past 20 years, however, new names have begun to appear at the top of the Bordeaux price lists, upstarts such as Le Pin, Valandraud and Gracia. William Echikson's entertaining and opinionated portrait of the Bordeaux wine industry explains how this has happened.