Nyetimber beats Bollinger – not

The 'news' that Nyetimber, an English sparkling wine, had supposedly beaten Champagne Bollinger in a blind tasting organised in Italy, was picked up by the British wine media, and consequently reported on, as in this article on decanter.com at the end of last week. [I was asked by The Guardian national newspaper on Friday to write about this extraordinary turn of events because their own wine correspondent Victoria Moore was too busy watching Tony Blair defend the invasion of Iraq at the Chilcot enquiry in London. I declined with thanks – JR]

The news took me by surprise because, although...