Intoxicating History is the perfect title for drinks expert Henry Jeffreys and food critic Tom Parker Bowles’s new podcast. Its theme is alcohol, but its contents are predominantly historical, which is good news if, like me, you are quick to apply the word ‘bore’ to any man who talks about wine for more than eight minutes.
The first episodes came out before Christmas but they have been gathering momentum since Dry January. Today’s drinking culture, which has spawned this bizarre annual group sacrifice, has an interesting pedigree. Europeans have apparently been on their guard against boozing Englishmen for nearly a millennium. The Portuguese were certainly left in no doubt as to our reputation when we aided them in their Reconquista. The tipsy Anglo-Normans in question were 12th-century Crusaders en route to the Holy Land.
We did not immediately take to Portugal’s own vintage. Fizzy and tannin-rich, it was also, says Jeffreys, just a little bit ‘piggy’, owing to the fact that it was transported in porcine skins. The later addition of brandy not only stabilised it but also rendered it more palatable. We heard the tragic tale of one John Mytton, who went up to Cambridge with 2,000 bottles of the stuff, left with none (and no degree), and died after drunkenly riding a bear.
Port is the one drink not enjoyed by James Bond, whose love of alcohol receives its own episode. Listening to Parker Bowles describe the ‘punchiness’ of Fleming’s Vesper cocktail reminded me of just how supernatural Bond used to be. The Vesper was made with Gordon’s gin and Smirnoff vodka at a time when the former was stronger than today.
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