In history 12 July 1962 marks The Rolling Stones first ever live performance at the Marquee Club, London. The day before they came up with the name The Rollin’ Stones lifted from a Muddy Waters song. They played songs by their heroes Jimmy Reed, Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry. The rest is history.

On this occasion Martin McMurray on vocals and his lead guitarist Peter Kelso provided a great meal topped off with lamb rack.

Canapés. We were served two. Firstly, served on bread, smoked salmon with crème fraîche and mayonnaise topped with salmon roe of excellent quality. Then followed a curious spicy cheese based biscuit with Martin’s secret ingredient, Rice Bubbles courtesy of Kellogg's. Interesting.

Aperitif wine. As a starter we enjoyed Tyrrells Stevens Vat 4 Semillon. Under screwcap and at 12% there was no bottle variation and was in the mould of a classic HV Semillon albeit not as dry as some.

Main course.  In a nutshell we enjoyed rack of lamb with a caramelised onion glace sauce with sweet potato/pistachio mash and fennel. The lamb, sourced from across the ditch, was perfectly cooked with an even pink colour. From comments, this applied across the room and an achievement given the challenges of the kitchen arrangements.

The wines.

$1·         Bowen Cabernet Sauvignon 2008 (cork, 14.5%)

$1·         Huntington Cabernet Sauvignon 2008 (screwcap, 13.8%)

$1·         Chateau Musar Jeune 2010 (Lebanon) (cork, 14%)

$1·         Tyrrells Vat 47 Chardonnay 2007 (screwcap, 14%)

The first two wines were both a wonderful complement for the sweet lamb. However, there were two clear views. The Bowen was a sweeter Coonawarra style that some preferred but some thought the dusty tannins of the Mudgee wine was the more elegance to suit the lamb and showed less alcohol.

A red and a white were served with the cheese. The Chateau Musar was the second wine of this famous Lebanese producer (established 1930) made from Cinsault (sometimes called Blue Imperial in Australia), Syrah and Cabernet. Some were unfamiliar with the maker and one of the Society’s aims is to educate which is a nice fit in this case. Cinsaut is the fourth most widely planted grape variety in France, and is especially important in Languedoc-Roussillon. Most thought it an easy drinking wine being un-oaked with ripe abundant fruit. Not a touch of the jammy characters we often see.

It’s unusual to have a white wine with our cheese but the nine year old Vat 47 was an inspired match with the cheese. This wine under screwcap was in fine form. Stone fruit and well balanced use of oak indicates some time yet to go.

Cheese and coffee. James presented us a Clarines des Perrin cow’s milk washed rind fromage from Franche Comte region on the Swiss border. New to many of us it had a visually attractive golden rind with a buttery reddish texture. Fully ripe. It was served with grapes and walnuts.

Spencer Ferrier presented Tanzania Peaberry coffee. The beans are half the size of a “normal” bean. Medium bodied, floral with a firm chocolate finish.

Detailed note for those with some time on their hands:

Peaberries (also caracol or caracolillo, “little snail” in Spanish) result when the coffee fruit develops a single oval bean rather than the usual pair of flat-sided beans. A half-hearted, vestigial crevice meanders down one side of the little egg-shaped beans. Botanists observe that peaberries develop when only one of two ovaries in the flower are pollinated or accept pollination, thus producing one seed rather than two – an only child, as it were, in a species in which twins are the norm. Since Arabica coffee is self-pollinating (the same flower can impregnate itself) excessive peaberry production is a sign of general infertility of the plant.