NM v RM – boxing champagne

We’re great admirers of grower champagnes here, Jancis having written about them a number of times, including Growers' champagnes from Son of Sampler and Great growers' champagnes. So I found it impossible to resist a chance to attend a (semi) blind tasting that pitted the heavyweights, five well-known grandes marques, against a handful of bantamweight artisans.

The referee was Roberson, and the contestants, which were made known to us at the start of the tasting, were carefully chosen to roughly equal each other in weight and price. They were all non vintage, and most of them priced...