I’ve never been into Halloween much. Guy Fawkes’ night was the big thing growing up in the UK. It too was full of evil. We would make a human shaped body and wheel it around our town saying: ‘penny for the guy’. We’d use the money we raised to buy fireworks, build a big bonfire and then throw the effigy on it. Supervised of course, although I do remember an incident when we set off a rocket in the house.

This is a time of year when evil abounds. Like all good Christian festivals Halloween is based on a Pagan one, namely Samhain, a Celtic gathering when people would light fires and wear costumes to ward off evil spirits. In the 8^th C, Pope Gregory III sensibly changed the name to All Hallows’ Eve and Samhain became a date for honouring Saints, without really changing the spookiness. It seems that Guy Fawkes’ night bonfires were taken from Samhain too.  

What’s that got to do with wine under $20 you ask? Not a lot, but it does segue nicely into spirits and I felt it was time to mention these as they have played a big part in my life. And, while you won’t get a bottle for under twenty bucks you should be able to buy a shot.

I come from a family of whisky drinkers (mother’s side, Methodists on father’s). My great aunt Nelly, who lived to be 96 never lost the ability to travel from her room to my father’s study where the whisky lived. My aunt Hilda, who lived to be 99 would say, as the clock approached 6pm ‘around about this time…’. My mother, who didn’t make it that far sadly, had an equal passion, and only ever drank it neat. I put it down to their father (and brother in law of Nelly) who was in the Merchant Navy, one John Embleton Cowley, OBE, who had the dubious distinction of surviving being torpedoed in both the First and Second World Wars. Now, that’s enough to make anyone a whisky drinker.

But which whisky?

I was fortunate enough to work for the distributor of The McCallan and I can tell you the 18 year-old Sherry Oak was very, very good. But it wouldn’t be my first pick. No, I prefer the medicinal notes of an Islay malt such as Laphroaig, Lagavulin or Bowmore. I’m not that fussy which because the only time I find myself having a whisky or, for that matter any other spirit, is late into the evening when my judgement is not its best – evil spirits gather at midnight, after all. I’d add Grappa to the list of things to avoid after dinner, eau de vie is more oh dear me, Marc will leave its mark, Green Chartreuse will turn me green, but perhaps worst of all is Armagnac.

France’s other great brandy, which hails from the town of Condom is all silky salutations up front before whacking you across the back of the head on the way out. However, I find myself compelled to drink it every time I visit my father, for he is a member of Le Compagnie des Mousquetaires d’Armagnac and sworn advocate of the local tipple.

Evil though these spirits be they could be worse. And we have the Angels to that for that.

They sip on the stronger stuff – the alcohol that evaporates from the barrel as the spirit ages, namely the ‘Angels’ share’, reducing the drink from a near fatal 70% to a more welcoming 40%

Your health.