Bordeaux wine sellers, the middlemen between France's greatest vineyards and the world, acted last week as though they had just sipped sour Médoc. ";We are furious," snapped one. What they were furious about was the prospect of losing their profitable business with Chateau Latour, one of four venerable vineyards* that produce the only chateau-bottled Medoc wines rated as premier grand cru.
In highly secret negotiations, France's Beaumont family, which has owned the vineyard since 1670, is wrapping up the final details of a deal that would give co-ownership of Chateau Latour and its...