Champagne specialist and wine educator Tim Hall, who will soon be reporting on this year's week of tastings in Champagne, set up Scala Wine School in the mid 1990s. Alongside this, he imports and sells champagnes to private clients and to the wine trade. He refers to the wines in his list, produced mainly by récoltants-manipulants, as 'single-estate' champagnes rather than 'grower champagnes' because, he says, 'winemaking is crucial too', an attitude I find refreshingly pragmatic. As you can see from my notes and scores, the overall standard of this tasting of his wares in London last October was...