It’s hard to imagine a better match for the delicious food at ther Harwood Arms near Fulham Broadway than a good selection of Tuscans, and that’s how it proved yesterday.

The menu:

To start – soup with truffles, HA Scotch eggs (sp edn with black pudding), wood pigeon faggots (stunning with girolles) and cured smoked salmon.

Main – Berkshire roe deer shoulder with roast potatoes, beets, red cabbage and field mushrooms.

Desserts – HA vanilla doughnuts/damson jam, rosemary tart with lemon and frozen goat’s curd ice cream

Three British cheeses

We began with a stunning white, a dry Erbaluce from Vinochisti in the Val di Pesa, which seems to have a cult following, with good reason as well. Complex yet fresh, waxy and herby yet clean. Of all the wines, this one, unknown to us all, astonished most.

Red flight one consisted a 1971 Tignanello in great condition, way above expectations, paired with a very good Argiano ’79, then a Felsina Rancia ’95.

A flight of three 1997s consisted Lisini Brunello (rich and ready), Riecine Riserva (very elegant, lighter, a little more to give) and Conti Costanti Riserva (opening slowly, taking its time).

Next up, two 1999s, Isole’s Cepparello and Selvapiana Bucerchiale, the former still youthful, the latter with a bit of flesh and delicious. Somehow I missed another Brunello in the confusion, unforgivable, I know!

To finish up an amazing Vin Santo, Monsanto’s La Chimera 1995, smooth and complex, sweetish, a touch of caramel and very complex.

Well, when the cheeses came we just had to open another Tignanello ’71, which second bottle, remarkably, was also in great condition. Unbelievable.

If a couple of Calvados doing the rounds were not enough, those of us without a train to run for managed a very pleasant visit to the Fulham branch of Vagabond, where we received an extremely warm welcome of a type impossible to imagine in the more crowded and frantic Charlotte Street, branch. But a very big round of applause to the Harwood Arms for the welcome there, putting up with all our bottles, and for the food. Can’t remember being so full after lunch, ever! Thanks.