You may remember my less-than-enthusiastic review of William Echikson's book Noble Rot: A Bordeaux Wine Revolution. I was invited on BBC Radio 4's influential Today programme recently to discuss the book with him – difficult in what felt like less than two minutes, and strange to be doing it from a village in the Languedoc but, hey, that's the magic of France Telecom.
Now I hear that Comte Alexandre de Lur-Saluces, for long manager of Ch d'Yquem, is suing for libel to prevent distribution of the book in both Britain, where it was due to be launched with a party...