So, last night I joined up with some of the New California Wine people (Jasmine Hirsch, Jon Bonne, Raj Parr, Wells Guthrie, Steve Matthiason, Raj’s cousin Mona, and Michael and Charlotte Sager-Wilde) for dinner at Gymkhana.

Now I’m not a restaurant reviewer, but I’ll give you my take. It’s a brilliant, high-end Indian restaurant. It’s expensive, but it’s very, very good. It was the best Indian food I have ever eaten. And we washed it down with decent wine, some of the list and some we’d brought along.

Every dish was pretty much perfect. I had the best, most tender, and most delicious lamb I have ever experienced, which had been marinated for ages to a tender wonderfulness, and expertly spiced. And the muntjac deer vindaloo, with its pastry top, was a work of culinary art.

To drink: we began with a couple of bottles of Drappier Grande Sendree 2005 (very nice indeed, £95 on the list), and followed this up with a pair of Egon Muller’s Scharzhofberger Kabinett 2012, a little bit of very delicious but naughty vinous infanticide (£105 on the list). The wine of the night followed: the fabulous Le Soula Blanc 2001, still reductive and taut with amazing precision and interest.

Then some reds: Thierry Allemand Cornas Chaillots 2008, from a less celebrated vintage, but quite beautiful with its meaty depth allied with freshness. And from the Loire, Clos Rougeard ‘Les Poyeaux’ Saumur Champigny, which was textured and rounded with some spicy interest.

It was a remarkable meal. Expensive, for sure. But worth it.