Whisky galore

Scotch whisky, like French wine and Harry Potter, is subject to arcane speculation, its reputation guarded by zealous acolytes, while many people simply don’t get what the fuss is about.

I went to the launch of the ‘whisky snug’ at the Hotel du Vin in Brighton last Friday, organised by the Scotch Malt Whisky Society, to learn a little more about the subject. The SMWS, based in Leith, Edinburgh, has teamed up with The Hotel du Vin/Malmaison Group to offer special packages to members in Sussex, including regular events, special dram prices and good deals on the swish ‘Society Suite’ at the hotel. The noise on the night was all about single cask whiskies, independently bottled by the society, who use a numbering to identify each bottle. This gives no indication of quality; each bottle will taste completely different as each cask lends its own features to the spirit. With an alcohol content of 50 per cent, these products demand caution.

John McShane, the society’s ambassador, quoted David Daiches, the Scottish literary historian, critic and writer: “The proper drinking of Scotch whisky is more than indulgence: it is a toast to civilization, a tribute to the continuity of culture, a manifesto of man’s determination to use the resources of nature to refresh mind and body and enjoy to the full the senses with which he has been endowed.”

He also quoted WC Fields: “Always carry a flagon of whiskey in case of snakebite and furthermore always carry a small snake.”

And here is the great man (that’s Fields), demonstrating his capacity for strong liquor.

Five-star follies

The sybaritic splendour of Four Seasons Provence

On the day last September when the Dow Jones fell by 777.7 points, I accepted a job as the launch editor of a magazine dedicated to the luxury events sector. You might think this foolhardy, but I was banking on the kind of counter-intuitive judgment that can make (or break) a career.

 It was clear from the off that I faced an uphill struggle. My life was not made any easier when Giorgio Armani used the occasion of the opening of a flagship store in New York to declare that the era of the high-roller was over. Announcing the donation of $1 million to a local schools fund, Armani said: “Now is not the time to spend that kind of money on canapés.”

 His point was only slightly muted by the fact that trays of expensive nibbles, carried by gorgeous young things, were circulating as he spoke. No matter – the events world echoed to the sound of a large penny dropping. The flight from the five-star was on.

We produced one issue of the magazine. It looked sleek; it looked glossy; it looked exactly like a product of an age that had just ended and it folded shortly afterwards.

So it is a surprise, more than a year after modern capitalism’s almost fatal heart seizure, to note that some companies are still binging. A recent report in the Daily Telegraph described how BT spent £1m on a junket for 150 sales staff and partners to the Four Seasons hotel in Provence – a month after announcing plans to cut 30,000 jobs (http://tinyurl.com/yffys7p). For those who are interested, the whole sorry saga of BT’s events procurement procedures has been detailed by trade magazine Meetings & Incentive Travel (http://tinyurl.com/ybyoa6d).

Yesterday, the chancellor of the exchequer presented a pre-Budget report with all the joie-de-vivre of man giving a speech at his own funeral. Some big name companies need to stop behaving as if all their Christmases have come at once.