Conseillante – bottle v double magnum

Those of us who write about wine in London are very spoilt. It takes quite a lure to get us all to turn up for a tasting. But an array of Conseillantes from the 1985, 1990, 2001, 2005 and 2009 vintages persuaded quite a lot of high-profile wine writers to spend a morning at La Cabotte in the City of London, and then enjoy the leftovers over lunch. 

The leftovers were voluminous because the point of the tasting was to compare the same vintage blind from both standard 75-cl bottle and double magnum. What became clear quite quickly was that...