The August wine lunch was a special event with the Burgundy reds generously supplied/donated by Ray Healey. In the kitchen was Nigel Burton cooking up a duck feast and assisted on canapés by Hilton Chapman.

Canapés. We were supplied with two homemade canapés to start both served in Asian style spoons for ease of service. The first was baba ganoush topped with pickled eggplant and this was followed by hummus topped with chickpea. Clearly, the theme was to top the bases  with the “raw” ingredient that was used to make both of these tasty starters.

Aperitif wine. The aperitif wines ran far and wide with a feast of Chardonnay from Philip Shaw, Bellarmine, Tyrrells Vat 47, and so on. There were also a couple of high ranking Pinot Noirs is such as Medhurst and Port Phillip thrown into the mix. The Chardonnay did certainly match the Middle Eastern themed canapés.

Main course. Everyone loves duck and there was good reason to like the meal served by Nigel today. The duck breast sourced from Luv-a-Duck were wonderfully cooked with a consistent pink presentation which had been sous vide off-premises and then rendered with the assistance of the team in the REX kitchen. To top off this beautiful duck, Nigel had used lashings of duck fat to crisp the potatoes in the interests of our health. Courgette was the accompaniment on the plate and it had been criss-crossed to provide a charming presentation.

The Wines.

Ray Healey served all tables seven bottles of Burgundy from the 2014 and 2015 vintages. These were:

• Clerget 2014 Bourgogne Rouge
• Chéron 2015 Chambolle Quarante Ouvrées
• Chéron 2015 Chambolle Musigny Clos de l'Orme
• Chéron 2014 Chambolle Musigny Clos de l'Orme
• Chéron 2015 Vosne Romanée Les Barreaux
• Chéron 2014 Vosne Romanée Les Barreaux
• Chéron 2015 Gevrey Les Seuvrées

Ray presented us with a simplified and shortened masterclass in both Burgundy and the striking differences between the two vintages, 2014 and 2015. For those of us less knowledgeable in the finer art of Burgundy (than many in the room) it was a fascinating exercise and one that Ray has in one form or another run for us for a few years. A very generous donation from Ray.

Cheese and coffee. James Healey searching for his Irish ancestry served us a semi soft washed rind cheese from Ireland called Durrus. It even sounds Irish. On initially unwrapping the cheese there was a pungent aroma around a 10-metre radius of the cheese. The flavour was not as powerful and had a mild and buttery flavour. Much liked

Coffee today by Spencer Ferrier was Monsooned Malabar a coffee which is not always available but a special treat when it comes to hand. This uniquely Indian coffee is called monsooned because of its exposure to the monsoon rain and winds for a period of about 3 to 4 months causing the beans to swell and lose the original acidity. It is a heavy bodied, pungent but dry coffee with a chocolatey aroma. A treat.

Keith Steele, closed the lunch thanking Ray for the donation of the Burgundy.