In March 2009 Bruno Paillard, champagne producer currently on a PR offensive , came over to London to demonstrate to a small group of us just how differently different bottles of non-vintage champagne, which look superficially identical, can taste. As he has pointed out in no uncertain fashion, in the early 1980s he was a pioneer of giving full details of disgorgement date on his back labels, as shown below on an image on CellarTracker . At La Table de Robuchon in London (he has a long relationship with Joël Robuchon) he chose to show us examples of his Première Cuvée, the non-vintage blend that makes up 65% of...