WINE & POWER
WINE & POWER
AJ Linn
In most TV stations important guests are invited to make use of a well-stocked bar in the VIP lounge. (The BBC’s is known as the Green Room). The night of a crucial pre-election debate on Spanish TV Mariano Rajoy and Pedro Sánchez, some thoughtful person organised a special wine, the prize-winning Cachin Peza do Rei 2013, from Ribera Sacra, to be available. If they didn’t try it they missed out on a treat.
The relationship between politicians and drink has always been of interest to the media, and this class of public servant tends to be either an abstainer, a secret drinker, or a to-hell-with-it indulger. Winston Churchill was a proud and outstanding example of the latter category. He never tried to hide the fact that he drank two bottles of champagne a day, and a Scotch and water was always on hand. Add in multiple dry martinis, port after dinner, and brandy and cigar after that, and you may wonder why he lived so long. On his death at 91, Pol Roger, his favourite brand, produced a special cuvée named after him in memory of the 42,000 bottles it is calculated he got through during his life.
Barack Obama has a refreshingly open attitude to drinking, unlike the abstemious George Bush, and is a self-confessed appreciator of American beer and dry martinis. A predecessor, Lyndon Johnson, was seldom seen without his glass of Cutty Sark, and his bodyguards’ cars always carried reserve supplies. Our opinion of Richard Nixon is possibly reinforced when we hear that at official dinners he would serve his guests cheap wine, while his own superior quality was poured from a bottle wrapped in a napkin.
The presidential model for any wine lover has to be Thomas Jefferson. He had previously spent five years as a diplomat in Europe, giving him a love of French wine. He saw to it that the State spent more than a 250,000 euros (today’s value) stocking the presidential mansion’s cellars, and at its peak his collection ran to 300,000 bottles.
AJ Linn
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