A special lunch today with some 60 members attending with Gary Patterson in the kitchen, turning out a wonderful duck pie for each of us, and member Bruce Tyrrell, providing his now annual Hunter Valley tasting of the best of the 2018 Hunter Valley Wine Show. Paul was assisted by Matthew Holmes and Paul Thorne.

Canapés. Gary’s intention for this lunch was a total duck theme and we started off with duck consommé, which was made using the carcasses of the ducks which had been clarified with egg whites and flavoured with some saffron. It was sumptuous. This was followed by Peking duck on blini with cucumber, hoisin and a few other bits and pieces topped off with a wonderful crispy piece of duck skin. It looked. A classy canapé.

Aperitif wine. Staying with the Hunter Valley theme, our Winemaster had sourced from Bruce, the Tyrrells HVD Semillon 2013. At 5 years of age under screwcap it was as fresh as a daisy with crisp acidity which had obviously softened just a little to make the wine drinking well now and with a medium-term future.

Main Course. Hand making 60 duck pie for a lunch is not for the fainthearted. Gary never baulks at doing something different in his own style and in his own time. Gary had used the meat of 12 deboned Peking ducks with some pumpkin and pate and hand wrapped each in the pastry. Going to our web page to look at the photograph to the duck would be worthwhile. The ducks were served with a sauce of soy, hoisin and fennel with an interesting salad and asparagus. The salad had some sweetness for the duck. The fact that all the plates went back to the kitchen empty says it all. Well done

The Wines. Bruce Tyrrell had badgered a number of wine makers in the Hunter to provide us with a selection of the best wines of the 2018 Hunter Valley Wine Show. There were 11 wines in all and you can view a photograph of the listing of wines on the website under Recent Functions, no password required.

The five 2018 Semillons from 2018 were as a group surprisingly soft and drinkable and confirms somewhat of a style change over the past half-decade or so. The six Shiraz from the 2017 vintage varied significantly with one wine, Mount Pleasant Old Hill 1880 Vines Shiraz, at $135, showed massive oak and a most un-Hunter style.

Cheese and coffee. Gary Linnane filling in for James Healey as Cheesemaster gave us a will Studd El Esparto Manchego. This sheep’s cheese from La Mancha is easily identifiable by its tyre tread like skin and the example we had today was well aged and some thought a little on the dry side.

Coffee by Spencer Ferrier today was Ethiopian Yirgacheffe, a favourite of mine.

The combination of Gary in the kitchen and Bruce supplying wines was a combination that worked to a tee. Thank you to both for an extraordinarily enjoyable lunch.