This week, the pelleton found itself in Spain, as chef John "El Cid" Rourke, assisted by Peter Madden, whipped up a terrific dish based on oxtail (and that's no bull!). In addition to the food, we had the experience of some top wines, all generously provided by Ted Treister to celebrate his 65th birthday. Would that all members were this generous.

Starters were light and appetising in the tapas style: pieces of marinated octopus on toothpicks, and ditto of smoked eel. The initial aperitifs were some Hooten beer left over from the ale extravaganza a few weeks ago, and a sherry which was good but not up to the usual Lustau standard. But then we sat down to table to be greeted by a 2008 Corton Charlemagne white burgundy by G C Bonneau du Martray, a painstakingly made and superb example of the style, with piercing passionfruit acidity on the nose and palate matched by top chardonnay fruit sweetness yet to develop fully, and a finish kilometres long.

The oxtail had been cooked sous vide with a prepared sauce based on tomatoes, stock and herbs for 16 hours at 82 degrees. It was succulent and needed nothing more than the sliced baked potatoes and red onion that accompanied it. The wines were also Spanish: a 2004 Felix Callejo Ribera del Duero and a 1998 Cosecha Rioja. Both made from tempranillo grapes, the first a big wine with sweet jammy fruit partly balanced by good drying tannins, the second much finer and softer with nice slightly floral fragrance on the nose and good soft tannins to go with more developed fruit.

We stayed in Spain with the cheese, a Manchego sheep's milk cheese with great grassy but lactic notes and a slightly oily texture which held it together well. Roasted capsicum and whitlof leaves provided a contrasting note of bitterness, needed to balance an enormous Barossa shiraz in the form of the 2002 Elderton Command with ripe fruit, and sweetness as yet unintegrated with the rather tough underlying tannins. The other red was a Grant Burge Filsell from the same year and district, also typical of Barossa but with better balance and elegance.

Coffee was a medium roast from Colombia, not in the usual US bland style, but with good strong mouthfeel and a distinct citrus note which carried through to the finish.