My favourite drink
Kingsley Amis
MY favourite drink, The Macallan 10- Year-old single Highland malt Scotch whis- ky, has held that position since I first tasted it on its native Speyside in 1978, at which time it was not exported to the rest of the UK. By that very rare kind of event, a stroke of fate benefiting me personally, this was adjusted the following year. No Spirit known to me, certainly no cognac, can touch it for sheer quantity of flavour, for smoothness and for — what would you call it? — duration, lastingness, the ability to go on hanging round the mouth and nose. Nor, again unlike cognac, has it any undesirable side- or after-effects beyond those inseparable from all strong drink.
In my view the man who takes this or any other malt neat is missing something, the 'notes' released by the addition of a small amount of water, and also getting something he would be better off without, the harshness of most raw spirits at room temperature. In my Macallan I put about an equal part of Evian out of the big plastic bottle. I hope that in these pages I need not interdict ice. If you want ice in your whisky in my house you pour from the Bell's bottle or go without, as I once found myself telling my daughter-in-law, more to my surprise than hers.
My favourite beer is Carlsberg Special Brew, discovered long ago by my sons, then keen matchers of price against poten- cy. Banned in Denmark, one hears, for its aggro-inducing attributes, so be careful how you use it.
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