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Grower champagnes – finding value

Ferdinand Ruelle-Dudel of Champagne Franck Bonville

In another tale of two tastings Tam finds that it's the farmer fizz that's keeping champagne exciting. Above, Ferdinand Ruelle-Dudel of Champagne Franck Bonville.

I was early, or so I thought. I made my way up the narrow wooden stairs of the enduringly trendy pop-up-hatchery-cum-wine-bar Carousel, in its Georgian townhouse home on Charlotte Street, London. By the time I’d dumped coat and bag and scooped up a booklet, glass and my iPad, the noise was already deafening. The narrow, moodily lit spaces were filling up so rapidly that I was lucky, along with Anne Krebiehl MW, to find a teeny...