I love my tasting sessions three or four times a year in the bowels of Windsor Castle or Buckingham Palace as part of my duties as non-merchant member of the Royal Household Wine Committee (drawing to a close, alas; the picture shows the security gate we have to navigate on our way in to taste). I also love any chance to taste blind, but particularly when I can taste different branded champagnes without the possible prejudices induced by all the baggage – sorry, sophisticated marketing and image-building - surrounding them. So I was in seventh heaven last May when we ‘looked at’ a selection of champagnes that had been...