Before the recent AGM of the Royal Household Wine Committee at Buckingham Palace, the penultimate before my two three-year terms as a member are up, we tasted dozens of wines, blind as usual. One flight consisted of 10 whites that were simply called 'White wine for current drinking'. I thought most of them were Sauvignon Blancs. In the event they turned out to be just one Marlborough Sauvignon and a South African Chenin already in the Royal Cellars that were there to be compared with six English wines – and two Indian wines, included because of a forthcoming Indian state...