It is a beautiful, sunny autumn’s day in Yorkshire. It is also Remembrance Day and a small group of us, old friends and colleagues, are having lunch together at the Golf Club.

We sip Louis Roederer Brut and talk about old times. The table was already laid and at twelve thirty, John serves lunch. We start with a fresh water crayfish and crab cocktail on crisp salad leafs with horseradish crème fraîche, avocado, lime vinaigrette and melba toast and drink first Trimbach’s Riesling Cuvée Frederic Emile 2004 and then, Long-Depaquit Chablis Premier Cru 2010, both wines brought back from visits to the producers.

John then serves individual Beef Wellingtons with creamed herb mash, purple sprouting broccolii, heritage carrots and a deep red wine reduction. We drink La Rioja Alta en magnum and Torres Perpetual, a dark, rich Garnacha from the rugged hills of Priorat.