Thanks to James Hill for this review

Our Foodmaster Bill Alexiou-Hucker was back in the kitchen with Graham Gardner and Mark Bradford assisting.

Canapés. Bill's canapes were Mediterranean inspired with skordalia (garlic dip) with crispy fried caper berries and hummus with cumin spice cauliflower florets. Mark prepared guacamole with homemade smoked chorizo and capers on toast.

Aperitif wine. The main aperitif wine was a Society favourite, Richmond Grove Watervale Riesling 2006, which was a good match for the starters. The wine had good acid and structure drinking young for a wine aged 12 years. We had a variety of other wines from previous luncheons. The Tio Pepe sherry was again popular.

Main Course. On a rainy overcast day our main today was perfect. It was Alexander the Great vs The Duke of Wellington, a huge portion of Beef Wellington wrapped with a prosciutto, mushroom duxelles, Dijon mustard, spinach and rosemary with a base of filo and puff pastry with a red wine jus accompanied by a Greek themed mixture of small tomatoes beans bacon. The flavours were robust and well balanced with the perfectly cooked beef. Excellent.

The Wines.

• Balnaves Shiraz Coonawarra 2008 (14%)
• Barossa Valley Estates Ebenezer Shiraz 2002 (14%)
• Burton Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 2004 (13.5%)
• Zema Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2004 (cork, 14%)

The Balnaves Shiraz had good fruit flavour and balance and was elegant. The BVE Ebenezer Shiraz was over oaked and bitter on the palate and quite astringent.

With cheese the Burton Cabernet was a very good wine with soft tannins and acid and drinking well now. The Zema Cabernet of the same year, 2014, was well balanced and flavoured.

Cheese and coffee. Gary Linnane was acting Cheesemaster and he selected Maffra cloth aged cheddar from Gippsland. I came to the table at room temperature. Gary thought it could have been a little cooler to highlight the flavour. Tasting notes describe it as classic cheddar flavour sweet and rich with a moist slightly crumbly texture. Bill served it with homemade giardiniera and capers.

Spencer Ferrier provided a coffee from Rwanda described as not so sweet, clear with floral overtones.