Paul Thorne was on the burners this week with an undeclared meal simply telling us we would get something Italian. Paul usually prefaces his cooking by warning those who attend to bring their statins with them for their lipid-lowering benefits. He didn’t disappoint. Assisting Paul assembling canapés were Gary Linnane and Nick Reynolds.

Canapés. Paul’s canapé preparers worked on the ingredients that he had bought to make us to starters. First off on a blini base was horseradish cream with rare beef topping. A lovely mouthful. The beef, as you can see from the photograph, was wonderfully pink and I’m assuming that sous vide was involved. The second starter was a take on Italian an bocconcini salad served on crisp toasted baguette. The topping was a basil pesto with mirin. Two very different starters, both good.

Aperitif wine. Jumping back into Europe this month, we were served a Fiano, Ciropicariello Irpinia from Campania in Italy from the 2014 vintage. Fiano is becoming increasingly popular in Australia as we seek out lighter alternatives to the all too dominant, but still brilliant, Chardonnay. As a nation we still ignoring Semillon and Riesling. Go figure. Whilst this example of Fiano may have been better a year ago, it still has the minerality, and light stone fruit that make the grape so perfectly attractive as an aperitif wine. A balcony in southern Italy in Campania in summer with a glass of chilled Fiano…. what else could you possibly want?

Main Course. Paul was back with one of my favourite dishes, pork neck, slow cooked. So versatile and in this case, Paul had cooked the meat for 4 hours with bacon and other healthy and magic flavouring potions. It was served on a carrot and sweet potato mash which was wonderfully rich. Paul admitted (with pride) that there were bucket loads of butter, egg yolks and parmesan giving it the flavour that we all like. It was topped off with black pudding and some of us were lucky enough to get some of the leftover black pudding, which was passed around the tables. There was also fruit chutney made from cranberry with PX and Cointreau thrown in the mix. Paul was a little disappointed that the pork neck had dried out a little in the kitchen after it was cut into medallion’s reasonably early prior to the meal. However, the meal was wonderful.

The Wines.

• Giovanni Rosso Langhe 2010 (cork, 14.5%)
• Huntington Cabernet 2008 (screwcap, 13.8%)
• Vasse Felix Filius Cab Merlot 2013 (screwcap, 14.5%)
• Angullong Fossil Hill Sangiovese 2009 (screwcap, 14.5%)

A wonderful pair of wines with the main. The Piedmont wine was labelled Nebbiolo but given the colour it is likely that there was some Barbera in the blend. Whatever, it was a great 8-year-old predominantly Nebbiolo wine with the sort of tannin structure and elegance that I like so much about Piedmont. The Mudgee wine from Huntington was also outstanding. Whilst Huntington have somewhat of a following in the society, it is fair to say that not all the wines are top-quality. This wine was, and it was the favourite of many in the room. At 10 years of age it was soft, it was elegant, and the fruit had the mouthfeel equivalent to sitting in a wonderfully comfortable armchair.

The cheese wines were certainly a contrast. The Margaret River Bordeaux blend at 5 years of age was drinking beautifully and a credit to the team at Vasse Felix for their entry-level wine exhibiting such a standard. Soft, approachable and drinkable. The Angullong Mudgee wine was a little past its best, not surprising with a 9-year-old Sangiovese. Drinkable but boring. It does beg the question, can we grow Sangiovese everywhere in Australia?

Cheese and coffee. The James Healey cheese had everybody stumped for its origin. In line with the meal, it was from Italy, from the Veneto region. By name, Perenzin Montasio, made form cow’s milk. A strong flavoured cheese it clearly had some age as it was grainy and crumbly. A number of us were thinking of a high-quality aged cheddar.

Spencer repeated the success of last week with his Mexican peaberry beans and once again I was astounded by the turnaround in quality from the same bean served a month or two ago.

With the cheese, Paul had made an iceberg, radicchio etc salad which aided and abetted the fromage.

The 43 members at lunch thoroughly enjoyed the efforts of both Pauls on food and wine.