On this beautiful Sydney day, we enjoyed the food of the REX chef, Leo Rachid, who was assisted by Raj in his kitchen. At least once annually Society members get to enjoy the fruits of the local chef or a chef from another restaurant and we did so today.

Canapés. Leo prepared us two canapés, both looked stunning. The first was confit chicken terrine with pistachio and cranberry chutney on melba toast. The toast had been baked made in the kitchen with a touch bit oil. The second was smoked eggplant tartlets, goats cheese and basil. The basil had been deep-fried and added a beautiful look and texture to the finished mouthful. We were fortunate to have plentiful quantities, although they did not survive our appetites, always a good sign.

Aperitif wine. One of the delightful aspects of our Society is the ability to split the room on wine tastes. Today we enjoyed a Bellarmine Chardonnay 2010 from Pemberton in Southern Western Australia. At 8 years of age the wine showed some luscious characteristics with suggestive nectarine overtones. At its peak and as such a good addition to the lunch. Mind you, that is my opinion and others were not so impressed.

Main Course. Leo was going a little classically French today and provided us with salmon en croute, dauphinoise potatoes, sauté spinach with hollandaise sauce. Obviously, a lot of work had gone into the meticulous presentation. The pastry on the salmon was beautifully cooked and tasted wonderful (in other words, smothered with butter before cooking) and the comments were complimentary. One commentator suggested that the potatoes were not strictly dauphinoise as there were not lashings of garlic and cream. Whatever, Roger, I enjoyed them anyway.

The Wines.

• Brokenwood Indigo Chardonnay 2014 (screwcap, 12.5%)
• Château de Pizay Morgon 2013 (cork, 13%)
• Roux Pere Rully Clos Des Mollepierres 2013 (cork, 13%)
• Pala Cannonau 2012 (Sardinia) (cork, 13.5%)

As we were enjoying seafood today, the wines were selected for lighter food. The two main course wines, the Brokenwood and the Morgon, were well suited to the task although invariably there were different opinions as to the better match. The Gamay was a classic Morgon and whilst a little lighter than expected was, for me, the best match. This is not to undermine the Brokenwood Indigo which was for Australia a more austere style and all the better for it.

However, for my money, the two best wines of the day came with the fromage. The Rully Chardonnay from the Burgundy region had a poise, minerality, and complexity that the previous two Chardonnay did not exhibit. It was not Chablis and it had overtones that at a blind tasting would have indicated Burgundy although obviously not a top-notch example, but very enjoyable. The wine of the day for me was the Sardinian Grenache (called Cannonau in Sardinia) from Pala. It was a lighter dry style than we would typically see in Australia, but then again Australian ganache examples are now super in the hands of the right maker.

Cheese and coffee. Our acting Cheesemaster, Gary Linnane, served Le Gruyere from Switzerland (obviously). The cheese was in wonderful condition and was dense but still a little flexible in the style of a Comte from across the border. I very much doubt that anybody in the room could argue that this is not one of the world’s best examples of cheese.

Spencer Ferrier (in absentia) had provided us with Colombian coffee again, but this time there was a twist. Spencer has been trying to see how fine the grind can get (moving into the espresso particle size) before the coffee comes a little strong and extracted using the plunger. This week he had the grinder turned down to 6 from 7 last week and there were two comments about the strength and density of the flavour. For those who like a stronger coffee and for those strong enough to push the filter down in the plunger, the result was very good.

Cheese was served with mixed nuts, grapes and a fruit jelly.

Leo emerged from his kitchen during the meal to give us a full description of the meal.

Well done Leo and his team.