Taittinger Comtes de Champagne – a sparkling Christmas present

We wish you all a very happy Christmas and hope that, wherever you are, you will celebrate by popping at least one champagne cork.

Here are the notes I took at an impressive recent masterclass conducted by the distinctly unreconstructed Pierre-Emmanuel Taittinger (seen here with his UK importer Patrck McGrath hovering nervously in the background) and the guy who does the work, Damien Le Sueur, ex CIVC oenologist.

Pierre-Emmanuel, nephew of Claude Taittinger and determined roué, got things off to a good start by admitting to his audience at Decanter's event in London that the British invented champagne. He...