Belvedere

Belvedere (pronounced bel-vi-deer or bel-ve-de-re (Italian))

(1) In architecture, a building, or an (often turret-like) feature of a building, designed and situated to look out upon a pleasing scene.

(2) A cigar, shorter and with thinner ends than a corona.

(3) A palace in Vatican City, Rome, now housing an art gallery.

(4) As Fort Belvedere (formerly Shrubs Hill Tower), a country house in Surrey, England, famously the site of the abdication of King Edward VIII in 1936.

(5) A widely used name for localities and structures.

Adopted in English in the sense of a “raised turret or open story atop a house” from the Italian belvedere (literally “a fair (ie beautiful) sight”), the construct being bel(lo) (beautiful), from the Latin bellus (beautiful, fair) + vidēre (to see; a view, sight), from the primitive Indo-European root weid- (to see).  The pronunciation is thought to have been influenced by the French form of the word.  The perhaps opportunistic but enduring noun gazebo is said by some to be a facetious formation, the construct being gaz(e) (from the Middle English gasen; akin to the Swedish dialectal gasa and Gothic usgasjan (to terrify) which English gained in the sense of "to stare intently or earnestly") + -ebo (the Latin first person singular future tense suffix, on the model of belvedere.  That’s an attractive etymology but the Oxford English Dictionary dismisses the theory, saying it’s a corruption of a word from the orient, possibly the Arabic قَصَبَة‎ (qaṣaba) (source of the familiar casbah).  Belvedere is a noun; the noun plural is belvederes.

In architecture, the word "tower" is used loosely but technically a tower should rise from ground-level to its conclusion whereas a turret begins part-way up a building, most commonly at a corner.  Historically a turret was something on a small scale (relative to the building on which it sat) and usually little more than ornamental (although for centuries many were part of the defensive system of a fort or castle, both as an observation and fire-point) while a belvedere's sole purpose should be to offer a commanding view of some pleasant vista.

Belvédère du Rayon Vert, Cerbère, France

Closed in 1983, the art deco Belvédère du Rayon Vert is a former hotel in Cerbère, France, built between 1928 and 1932.  What was known as “ocean liner” style was at the time popular in interior decorating but, taking advantage of the shape of the available land, the architect Léon Baille (1828-1932) extended the nautical idea to the whole building which follows the lines of a ship and borrowing further from the decks of ocean liners, a tennis court sat on the roof.  One of the nation’s protected historic monuments, some of the rooms have been restored as apartments and tours are conducted during the holiday season.

The Plymouth Belvedere

The use of the Belvedere name by the Chrysler’s corporation low-priced (and now defunct) Plymouth brand is illustrative of the practice of the US industry in the mid-late twentieth century to create a prestige model which gradually would be moved down the hierarchy as other names were introduced at the top of the range.  The Belvedere nameplate also shifted between market segments, moving from the full-sized to the intermediate platform as Detroit’s offerings began to proliferate as the public (sometimes by economic necessity) began to prefer smaller cars.

1951 Cranbrook (left), 1951 Cranbrook Belvedere (centre) and 1956 Belvedere (right).

Plymouth introduced the Belvedere name in 1951 for the new, two-door hardtop version of Cranbrook line, Plymouth’s first model with the style which would for a quarter-century be a signature of Detroit’s more expensive cars.  In 1954, the name ceased to be an option and the Belvedere supplanted the as Cranbrook as the top-of-the-range model, offered now in all available body-styles (sedans, hardtops, station wagons, and convertibles) in a mix of two and four-door configurations.  The 1951 line looks frumpy now and even then was considered bulbous compared with the more modernist lines coming from the Ford and General Motors (GM) design studios but Chrysler at the time was run by a chief executive who dictated their products had to be able to driven “by a man wearing his hat”.  That view was abandoned for the 1955 models and the refinements which followed the next year were emblematic of the longer-lower-wider dictum which would dominate the industry for a generation.

1957 (left), 1960 (centre) and 1961 (right) Belvederes.

The 1957-1960 Belvederes are among the best remembered from Detroit’s crazy macropterous years, and are related to the final iteration on the 1961 Imperial which featured the tallest fins of the era although it’s the extravagance of the 1959 Cadillac which is most famous.  The 1957 Plymouths, released with the advertising slogan “Suddenly it’s 1960” created a sensation but unfortunately, although immediately popular, the quality control was patchy (like some of the paintwork) and Chrysler's reputation would for years suffer.  The styling lasted until 1961 by which time the craze was over and the big fins looked dated but the replacement was truly bizarre.  Sales suffered but so low is the survival rate of the 1961 Belvederes their very scalloped weirdness has made them a collectable.

1962 (left), 1963 (centre) and 1964 (right) Plymouth Belvederes.

Acting on misunderstood rumors (which some insist was industrial espionage) about what the competition was doing with their full-sized lines, Plymouth "downsized" the Belvedere for 1962, something which in little more than a decade would make sense but it was out of tune with the early 1960s.  That was a shame because the engineering of the cars was solid and many of those who did buy the things expressed satisfaction with the reduced exterior dimensions, noting there was little loss in interior space and those who definitely found an advantage in the lower weight and more agile handling were drivers using Belvederes in competition, the cars successful on both circuits and drag strips.  The styling however was again unfortunate and was soon toned-down; it didn’t become quite as bland as the 1961 Chevrolet (a reaction to the excesses of their 1959-1960 “bat-wings”) which was described as “looking a little like every car ever built” but it was certainly inoffensive.

1966 Belvedere (left), 1969 Hemi Roadrunner (centre-left), 1970 Superbird (centre-right) and 1970 Superbird in NASCAR trim (right)

With the restoration of a full-sized model to the range in 1965, the Belvedere was maintained in the increasingly important intermediate sector (similar in to dimensions to what the full-size cars had been before they became bloated in the mid-late 1950s).  A new trim package called the Satellite was added (a la what the original Belvedere had in 1951 been to the Cranbrook) and, responding to the increased demand for muscle cars, the high-performance GTX was created.  The line was restyled in 1968 using an interpretation of the then popular “coke-bottle” look and it was on this platform that the Roadrunner was built.  The Roadrunner essentially combined a stripped-down, basic Belvedere with the high performance engines and, stripped of any luxury fittings, it was cheaper as well as lighter.  Able to be configured to outperform even the GTX and offered at a price which on any cost/performance analysis was a bargain, it was an immediate hit and the line soon proliferated, Roadrunner convertibles and additional engines soon offered.  The Belvedere's final fling was also its apotheosis, the be-winged Roadrunner Superbird, offered only in the 1970 model-year as a homologation exercise to qualify the aerodynamic improvements for use in competition.  That year however marked the swansong of the Belvedere name, Satellite preferred as it was more in accord with the space age.

Miss Belvedere as now displayed (left), being lowered into her capsule in 1957 (centre) and as exhumed in 2007 (right).

The 1957 Belvedere was used in one of the larger and more unusual time-capsules.  Named Miss Belvedere as part of the city of Tulsa's “Tulsarama” Golden Jubilee Week festivities celebrating Oklahoma's fiftieth year of statehood, the car was on 15 June 1957 sealed in an underground vault to be opened a half-century later.  Intended as a prize to whomever came closest to guessing Tulsa's population in 2007, cognizant of the fears of nuclear war prevalent at the time, the enclosure was built to withstand hydrogen bombs being detonated in the vicinity.  Unfortunately, less attention was given to making things watertight and, when opened in 2007, the Miss Belvedere was found to have spent much of her fifty years wholly or partially submerged, the result muddy and rusty mess.  Some attempts were made to clean the worst of the damage in the hope a restoration might be possible but ultimately it was determined it was beyond salvation and she's now displayed as a dilapidated relic of a troubled yet optimistic age.

McMansions in their natural habitat.

Rightly or wrongly, many object to McMansions (the large, over-styled, essentially mass-produced houses built for the upper middle-class anxious to flaunt their wealth).  This is often an objection to conspicuous consumption and an extravagant use of resources but students of architecture focus on the confused mix of motifs which so often litter the structures with as many architectural clichés from palaces or castles as can be crammed into the space with little regard for scale or any sense of integrity.  On McMansions, it’s not unusual to see a mix of Corinthian columns, towers, turrets, belvederes, French doors, Gothic arches, flag-poles, stained glass, transom windows, balconies and porticos.  Much of the criticism probably is an expression of resentment that people with poor taste are able to afford such things but as a general principle, in architecture an emphasis on proportion and restrained elegance will tend to be more admired.

Fort Belvedere (formerly Shrubs Hill Tower), a country house in Windsor, Surrey, famously the site of the abdication of King Edward VIII in 1936 (left) and Belvedere Palace, Vienna (right).

Lindsay Lohan attending V Magazine, Marc Jacobs & Belvedere Vodka event, Hiro Ballroom, New York City, September 2009.

Chopine

Chopine (pronounced choh-peen or chop-in)

(1) A shoe having a thick sole, usually of cork, suggesting a short stilt, worn especially by women in Europe in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and said to have been introduced from the Ottoman Empire.

(2) A bottle of wine (usually Bordeaux) containing 0.250 fluid liters, 1/3 of the volume of a standard bottle.

1570–1580: From the Middle French chapin, from the Old Spanish chapín (type of high shoe or clog, raised by means of a cork sole), from chapa (plate), the construct being chap(a) (from the Middle French chape) + -in (the adjectival suffix).  The original, the Old Spanish chapín, is probably imitative of the sound made by the shoe when walking.

The ultimate platform shoe

How they worked.  Chopines were a kind of wonder bra for the feet.

Chopines began as a purely functional device; a means of raising women’s shoes and the hems of their dresses above the dirt and filth in which they were often compelled to walk.  It's said they were brought by traders from the Ottoman Empire where they'd been worn in bath houses by concubines, courtesans and others, the speculation being they were originally a modestly proportioned device designed as a health measure, a means of protecting the feet from infection, bath houses being warm, dark and moist, the perfect incubation environment for bacteria.  As sometimes happens, they became a status symbol with prestige determined by their elevation, the tallest extant examples reaching 20 inches (508 mm) although some historians claim they were built as high as 30 inches (762 mm).  Beyond a certain height practicality was marginal but there's evidence highly stylized examples were worn outside the bath house on ceremonial occasions.  Chopines were most popular in Spain and Italy in the late sixteenth century and when they spread to England, they were sometimes referred to as "the Venice" because of the perception that was their city of origin, something which seems to have arisen because of their mention in widely-read travel journals of the age.  Their impracticality must have made them a niche item because they never became part of any defined English costume or style of dress.  Whether men objected to women suddenly appearing taller is lost to history.

As shoes, they had a short life because their sheer size dictated they be made from lightweight materials like cork and wood although some used a metal framework.  The style, in a less extreme form, was briefly revived with the cork-soled platform soles of the 1970s which had the effect of creating a short-lived investment bubble in the Portuguese cork industry.

The absurdity of the style attracted the attention of writers.

"It is ridiculous to see how these ladies crawl in and out of their gondolas, by reason of their choppines [clogs]; and what dwarfs they appear when taken down from their wooden scaffolds; of these I saw nearly thirty together, stalking half as high again as the rest of the world."  (John Evelyn, diary entry, June 1645)

"By'r lady, your ladyship is nearer to heaven than when I saw you last by the altitude of a chopine." (Hamlet, act 2 scene 2, William Shakespeare, 1602)

"He creaked to and fro, tiptoing up nearer heaven by the altitude of a chopine... "(Ulysses, James Joyce, 1922).

Continuing the chopine tradition: Lindsay Lohan in Saint Laurent Billy leopard-print platform boots (Saint Laurent part number is 5324690SR00), New York, March 2019.

Grain

Grain (pronounced greyn)

(1) A small, hard seed, especially the seed of a food plant such as wheat, corn, rye, oats, rice, or millet.

(2) The gathered seed of food plants, especially of cereal plants.

(3) Any small, hard particle, as of sand, gold, pepper, or gunpowder.

(4) The smallest unit of weight in most systems, originally determined by the weight of a plump grain of wheat. In the US and British systems, as in avoirdupois, troy, and apothecaries' weights, the grain is identical.  In an avoirdupois ounce there are 437.5 grains; in the troy and apothecaries' ounces there are 480 grains (one grain equals 0.0648 gram).  A grain is ¹⁄_7,000 of an avoirdupois pound

(5) Slang term for the smallest possible amount of anything (eg not a grain of truth).

(6) The arrangement or direction of fibers in wood, or the pattern resulting from this.

(7) To paint in imitation of the grain of wood stone, etc.

(8) Slang term for marijuana which faded from use in the 1980s.

(9) In opposition to one's temper, inclination, or character (against the grain).

(10) In idiomatic use, as “take it with a grain of salt”, an expression of scepticism.

(11) A solid-fuel rocket's propellant charge; tending to the shape of a hollow cylinder, sometimes textured, the size varying, up to a point in proportion with the device to be equipped.

1250-1300:  Middle English grein ("a small, hard seed" especially of one of the cereal plants, also as a collective singular, "seed of wheat and allied grasses used as food;" also "something resembling grain; a hard particle of other substances" (salt, sand, later gunpowder etc)) and the twelfth century Old French grein (eed, grain; particle, drop; berry; grain as a unit of weight) from the Latin grānum (seed, a grain, small kernel), from the primitive Indo-European root gre-no- (grain).  In the US, where corn developed a specialized sense because of its place in agricultural economics, it is the general word and used of wheat, rye, oats, barley etc.

The earlier sense in English was the early thirteenth century "scarlet dye made from insects", a meaning attaches also to the Old French collateral form graine.  In Middle English grain also could mean "seed of flowers; pip of an apple, grape etc; a berry, legume, nut.  The verb grained (simple past tense and past participle of grain) dates from the 1520s and was used in compounds associated with "having grains of a specified kind" (coarse-grained, close-grained, fine-grained etc) and also the process of staining a surface with an imitation wood grain.

Figuratively, the late fourteenth century meaning "the smallest possible quantity" reflected the practicalities of commerce rather than a scientific expression, the conveniently available devices of the age unable accurately to measure anything smaller and there anyway being no practical use for such a measure.  From the early fifteenth century it was thus standardized (in law and customary practice) as the smallest unit of weight (originally the weight of a plump, dry grain of wheat or barley from the middle of the ear).  From the 1560s, it was used to describe "roughness of surface; a roughness as of grains", applied especially to timbers as a measure of the "quality due to the character or arrangement of its fibres".  From this use emerged the phrase “against the grain” a metaphor from carpentry dating from circa 1650 expressing the experience that cutting across the fibres of wood is more difficult than cutting along them.  Grain alcohol was first noted in 1854 as a distiller’s category which reflected the practice of mixing alcohols derived from different grains for industrial and other purposes.  Lindsay Lohan recommends wholegrain bread as part of a balanced diet.

Grain as a measure of mass: apothecaries and others

A grain is a unit of measurement of mass, and, for the troy grain, equal to exactly 64.79891 milligrams. It is nominally based upon the mass of a single seed of a cereal. From the Bronze Age into the Renaissance the average masses of wheat and barley grains were part of the legal definitions of units of mass.  The grain was the legal foundation of traditional English (and later imperial) weight systems, and is the only unit that is equal throughout the troy, avoirdupois, and apothecaries' systems of mass.  The unit was based on the weight of a single grain of barley, considered equivalent to one and one third grains of wheat.

In both British Imperial and U.S. customary units, there are precisely 7,000 grains per avoirdupois pound, and 5,760 grains per troy pound or apothecaries’ pound.  The grain is commonly used to measure the mass of bullets and propellants and the term also refers to a single particle of gunpowder, the size of which varies according to requirements.  In archery, the grain is the standard unit used to weigh arrows.  In dentistry, the gold foil used as a material to restore teeth is measured in grains.  The Historically, the 5-grain aspirin was the typical domestic dose while 7-grains was thought a strong does (and the guidance label on some bottles of aspirin still indicates the dosage is 325 mg (5 grains).  Though no longer recommended, grains are still used occasionally in medicine as part of the apothecaries' system, especially in prescriptions for older medicines such as aspirin or phenobarbital.  In that example the grain is approximated to 65 mg, though the grain can also be approximated to 60 mg, depending on the medication and manufacturer.  The apothecaries' system has gradually been replaced by the metric system, and the use of the grain in prescriptions is now rare.

In small-arms ammunition, the weight of the bullet is expressed in grains, a number often neglected which seems strange given weight affects (1) how a firearm recoils, (2) the trajectory of the bullet and (3) terminal ballistics (how the bullet behaves when striking a target).  As a general principle, a lighter bullet will achieve a higher speed which means it should maintain a straighter trajectory over a longer distance. However, a light bullet delivers less energy and is more susceptible to wind so it will tend to be blown off target more than something heavier.  For ultimate accuracy therefore, neither is absolutely preferable.  Nor is the grain count of necessity going to produce the same effect in every firearm because measures like calibre, muzzle energy and muzzle velocity all have an influence.  That was as true decades ago when the trend was towards smaller calibres as it is in the age of “bigger is better”.  In some cases, over some distances, a lighter bullet, moving faster, delivers more energy at the point of impact.  That’s one part of the equation but the math influences also the recoil.  It takes more energy to move a heavier bullet so, because for every action there should be an equal and opposite reaction, the heavier bullet should cause a greater recoil but, depending on the calibre and the firearm’s frame (some absorb more recoil), the lighter bullet might induce more recoil because more energy is thrust from the barrel, something further influenced by the propellant burn rate.

Woodgrain and not

Jaguar’s Mk X (1961-1966) and 420G (1966-1970) made extensive use of burl walnut woodgrain fittings.  It was one of the more atmospheric interiors of the post-war years.

The Facel Vega Facel II (1962-1964) was France’s finest car of the post-war years.  However, its lush looking “woodgrain” dashboard was actually painted metal.

Edulcorate

Edulcorate (pronounced ih-duhl-kuh-reyt)

(1) In the production of food and beverage, to sweeten.

(2) Figuratively, to make something more acceptable or palatable (in the figurative sense of that word).

(3) In chemistry, to free from acids, salts, or other soluble impurities by washing; to purify.

1800–1810: From the Medieval Latin ēdulcorāre & the New Latin ēdulcorātus, the construct being ē- (an alternative form of ex- (out of; from)) + the Late Latin dulcorātus (sweetened (past participle of dulcorāre)), the construct being the Latin dulcor (sweetness) + -ātus.  The Latin suffix -ātus was from the Proto-Italic -ātos, from the primitive Indo-European -ehtos.  It’s regarded as a "pseudo-participle" and perhaps related to –tus although though similar formations in other Indo-European languages indicate it was distinct from it already in early Indo-European times.  It was cognate with the Proto-Slavic –atъ and the Proto-Germanic -ōdaz (the English form being -ed (having).  The feminine form was –āta, the neuter –ātum and it was used to form adjectives from nouns indicating the possession of a thing or a quality.  Edulcorate, edulcorated & edulcorating are verbs, edulcorative is an adjective and edulcoration is a noun (the noun use of edulcorate is non-standard and is used casually in industry to refer to cleansing or sweetening agents in which case the (unattested) noun-plural would be edulcorates (ie the same as the third-person singular simple present)).

Edulcorating the already edulcorated.  Lindsay Lohan at the opening of the Magnum Pleasure Store, Covent Garden, London, July 2015: strawberry chocolate pearls & nuts over a freshly-dipped Magnum.  Never do in moderation what can be done in excess.

COVID-19 lockdowns and isolation induced many to take up the production of foods such as bread and pasta but there was also interest in wine-making.  It appears that like the amateur bakers, many home-based vintners were new to the business, taking advantage of suddenly available time to ferment, presumably to lower the cost the increased intake of alcohol lockdown seemed to encourage.  Shop-front stores supporting the hobby noted the most common request received was for products which could be used to edulcorate (sweeten) wine, it being common for the first bottle of a new batch to be too dry for the taste of many.  The excessive dryness in home-made wine happens because the process usually is to add wine yeast and leave the mix uninterrupted to ferment, unlike a commercial winery which will take a number of measurements during the fermentation process, stopping it when the desired sweetness is achieved.

A simple to use edulcorating agent is wine conditioner, something ideal for a home ferment.  Wine conditioner is a mix of non-fermentable sugar, water, and sorbate, an all-in-one solution for those interested in drinking their wine rather than making its production an art and it’s especially convenient because it’s best used immediately before bottling.  That’s because except for experts, no form of sweetener should be added prior bottling because wine noticeably will change from month to month when very young and thought it may seem too dry in the early days, it will often will mellow, even to the point where no edulcoration is required and a premature addition of conditioner can produce something excessively sweet.  Before adding the conditioner, manufacturers recommend re-racking to a new fermenting bucket or carboy to avoid stirring up sediment.  Add the wine conditioner a little at a time, stirring gently and waiting a few minutes before tasting.  It can be bottled at the point at which the desired taste is achieved; there is no right and wrong in this because it’s a matter of personal taste.

More challenging to use but offering the possibility of more complexity are red and white grape concentrates.  Unlike conditioners, grape concentrates contain fermentable sugars, thus a metabisulphite must first be used otherwise the yeast will be activated, fermenting the sugars and removing sweetness.  For this reason some wine makers add a second dose of metabisulphite to kill the remaining active yeast cells and both concentrates can be added just before bottling.  Pre-filtered, they leave no sediment and are mixed in to taste, just like the conditioner.  Obviously, the simple way to sweeten something is to add sugar but, except for experienced users, it’s not recommended because even if a metabisulphite is added, some active yeast may remain and because sugar is easily femented by yeast, carbonation can result.  It is though a quick solution and many skilled home users use nothing but sugar, again, adding a little at a time, stirring and bottling when the taste proves palatable.  Especially with fruit-based wines, packaged fruit juice is a handy agent because almost all contain preservatives (frequently metabisulphite) so they’ll be no ongoing fermentation and the process is the same: mix, stir and taste.

Whatever edulcoration method is used, for new wine makers the best approach to probably to try variations in the mix, noting on a tag or label attached to the bottle the quantity added.  This can be referred to when tasting the final result and the preferred method can then be replicated, always remembering no two batches are ever exactly identical but with each batch, wine makers learn to recognize implications of the variation, adjusting the edulcoration to suit.

Whiskey & Whisky

Whiskey & Whisky (pronounced hwis-kee or wis-kee)

(1) An alcoholic liquor distilled from a fermented mash of cereals (the grains usually barley, rye, or corn) and typically containing 43-50% alcohol; the end product usually aged in oak barrels and sometimes a blend from various mixes.

(2) A drink of whiskey or whisky.

(3) Of, relating to, or resembling whiskey or whisky.

(4) A light gig or carriage (historical reference only).

(5) In international standards (as “w for whiskey”), the NATO, ICAO, ITU & IMO phonetic alphabet code for the letter “W” (familiar to many in the form WTF).

1715: A variant of usque,an abbreviation of usquebaugh, from the Irish uisce beatha (water of life) or the Scots Gaelic uisge-beatha (water of life), ultimately a translation of the Medieval Latin aqua vītae (water of life (originally an alchemical term for unrefined alcohol)).  The form whiskybae has been obsolete since the mid eighteenth century.  The Scots and Irish forms were from the Proto-Celtic udenskyos (water) + biwotos (life), from biwos(alive).  The Old Irish uisce (water) was from the primitive Indo-European ud-skio-, a suffixed form of the root wed- (water; wet); bethu (life), from the primitive Indo-European gwi-wo-tut-, a suffixed form of gwi-wo-, from the root gwei- (to live). The noun plurals are whiskies & whiskeys.  Although iskie bae had been known in the 1580s, it appears unrelated to usquebea (1706), the common form of which was uisge beatha which in 1715 became usquebaugh, then whiskeybaugh & whiskybae, the most familiar phonetic form of which evolved as “usky”, influencing the final spellings which remain whisky & whiskey.  Wisely, the Russians avoided the linguistic treadmill, the unchanging vodka freely translated as “little water”.

The Medieval Latin aqua vītae (water of life) had great appeal to those Europeans making drinks (especially distilled spirits).  In Sweden there was the cordial akvavit, the French called Brandy eau de vie and in Scotland and Ireland, the most popular liquor was called uisge beatha, all these forms meaning “water of life”.  The Gaelic variety was with both alacrity and enthusiasm embraced by the English, one noted champion and consumer being Henry VIII (1491–1547; King of England 1509-1547) although given the fondness for strong drink long shown south of the border, it’s likely that even without the royal imprimatur, success would have anyway been assured and it was certainly guaranteed after 1541 when Henry dissolved the monasteries and with that one act, also the English monopoly on distilling enjoyed by the monks.  The spellings whisky and whiskey are used world-wide to distinguish regional drinks (Scotch whisky, Irish whiskey, bourbon whiskey etc) and the terms “Scotch” and “Bourbon” are common ellipticals for their types.  The adoption of the spelling “whiskey” in the US during the nineteenth century was unusual in that the usual US practice was to simplify things by removing a letter or two but it was technically an adoption of an older form rather than an innovation.   

John Walker & Sons, holders of the Royal Warrant, made Diamond Jubilee to mark the sixtieth year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II in 2012.

Diamond Jubilee is a blend of grain and malt varieties, all of which were distilled in 1952, the year of Her Majesty's accession.  To further the connection, the whiskies were blended in two small casks made with oak from the Royal Estate at Sandringham and laid down at the Royal Lochnagar distillery close to Balmoral Castle.  The blend was bottled on 6 February 2012 (sixtieth anniversary of the accession) and released in a limited edition of sixty.  The list price was US$198,000.

Having a belt.  Crooked Hillary Clinton enjoys a shot of Crown Royal Bourbon Whiskey, Bronko's restaurant, Crown Point, Indiana, Saturday 12 April, 2008.

Scotch, Bourbon and Rye are all types of whiskey or whisky, both distilled liquors made from a fermented mash of cereal grains and aged in containers, traditionally of oak.  The most commonly used grains are corn, barley malt, rye, and wheat but what makes each type different is not only the grain but also the distilling process, the aging and critically, the water used.  Despite the widespread perception that there’s a clear rule about the application of “whisky” and “whiskey”, although there are conventions, the distinctions are not always absolute and the only reliable guide is what the maker chooses to print on the label.  As a general principle, (1) the spelling whiskey is common in the US & Ireland while whisky is used elsewhere and (2) all labelled as scotch is whisky while other types tend to be whiskeys.  However, in the US, the two spellings were used interchangeably until the mid-nineteenth century when whiskey began to predominate but it wasn’t until the widespread availability of style-guides in the late 1940s that US use became consistent, writers using whiskey as the accepted spelling for aged grain spirits made in the US and whisky for those distilled overseas.  Despite that, many American brands use whisky on their labels, and the Standards of Identity for Distilled Spirits which sets out the legal regulations for spirits sold in the US, also uses whisky.  North of the border, the Canadians prefer whisky.  Within Scotland, the whisky that is locally made is called simply whisky, while everywhere else, (and in the UK regulations that govern its production), it’s almost always called “Scotch whisky” or "Scotch".  Anything made in Ireland is a whiskey whereas what’s distilled in Japan, in the style of the Scottish product, is whisky.

Lindsay Lohan advertising the (fictitious) Japanese chewing gum Number One Happy Whiskey Chew, filmed for the TV show Anger Management, March 2013.

Whiskey and whisky can be straight or blended, the former not mixed with anything or only with other whiskey from the same distiller and distillation period; the latter can include various combinations of whiskey products from different distillers and different distillation periods as well as other flavorings, such as fruit juice; blended whiskeys generally have a lighter flavor than the straight.  With Scotch whisky, the distinction is fourfold: (1) Pure Malt which is a spirit made solely from barley malt.  It’s an uncompromising taste, purer (and usually much more expensive) and more intense in flavour, with what the aficionados (who, like the “cork dorks” who “taste” wine have their own language of criticism) tend to describe pure malts in terms of their “personalities”.  Confusingly, a pure malt is not the same as a single malt and for this reason pure malts also received the denomination “vatted”, helping buyers to differentiate.  (2) The single malt differs from the pure in that the former has only the one malt, the result of a single distillation whereas a pure malt has at least four.  Single malts are almost always stronger but not necessarily more expensive than pure malts.  For those searching for some scientific reason to justify their fondness for single-malt whiskies, there is some research which suggests consumption may lead to a reduction in internal cancers, apparently because single-malts are high in ellagic acid, an antioxidant thought to absorb rogue cancer cells.  Critics note a more effective might be to eat more fruit, higher still in ellagic acid but, in typical academic fashion, all agree “more research is required”. (3) Grain Whisky is a simpler Scotch, produced using only the distillation of grains such as rye, wheat or corn and can thus be produced much more quickly.  The grain whiskies are much cheaper and the manufacturing process is commonly used throughout the world.  (4) Blended Scotch is the most consumed.  Produced using a combination of grains and single malts, blends deliberately are mixed to be both affordable and accessible, the taste perhaps less challenging than pure or single malt Scotch, both of which have a minimum maturation time of 12-15 years while a blended Scotch can be ready in eight.  However, at the upper end of the market, there are blends matured for 24 years.

By their colors they shall be known.

Scotch is a whisky made from grain, primarily barley which is malted and then heated over a peat fire.  There is much UK legislation which governs the definitions of various categories and marketing of Scotch whisky and it can’t be so-named unless wholly produced and bottled in Scotland.  Bourbon is a type of whiskey which was first produced in Kentucky and regulations demand it must be based on a mix with at least 51% mash from corn in its production.  It uses a sour mash process, so-called because the mash is fermented with yeast and includes a portion from a mash that has already been fermented.  For a whiskey to be called bourbon, it must be made in the United States but it’s a myth it can come only from Kentucky or Tennessee.  Rye uses either a rye mash or one with a mix of a rye and malt and while US regulations demand a minimum 51% rye content, other jurisdictions, such as Canada, don’t set a lower limit.  Bourbon is one of some twenty defined categories of American whiskey and it’s thought the name is derived from Bourbon Street in New Orleans, on the basis that the name was used first in 1854 while the claim of a link to Bourbon County in Kentucky wasn’t asserted until twenty-odd years later.

Glenfiddich 1937 Rare Collection.  Laid down before the Second World War, all bottles of this came from a single barrel held at the firm’s Dufftown warehouse, the last filled in 2001.  A auction in Scotland in 2016, one sold for US$87,000 but another changed hands in the US in 2020 for US$120,00, a handy appreciation of about 40%.

Whisky and whiskey, like rum, gin and other spirits, have a history of involvement with fiscal systems.  In eighteenth century Pennsylvania, whiskey was both commodity and currency, used for cooking, medicine and drinking as well as being a store of value and a means of exchange and there began the Whiskey Rebellion (1791-1794), a violent protest against the first tax imposed on a domestic product by the newly formed federal government.  The new tax became law in 1791, levied to generate revenue so the debt incurred during the War of Independence could be serviced and to call it the “whiskey tax” was misleading because it applied to all distilled spirits, but consumption of American whiskey had greatly increased while rum production hadn’t recovered its pre-war levels so the name stuck.

Lindsay Lohan leaving the Whisky Mist night club, London, June 2014.

Less violent was the Whisky War (also called the Liquor War), conducted (1984-2022) in gentlemanly fashion between Canada and Denmark, two of the world’s more civilized nations.  The Whiskey War was “fought” over a border dispute concerning Hans Island, a previously obscure barren and uninhabited lump of rock (1.3 km² (½ sq mi)) which sits in the Kennedy Channel between Greenland (a Danish territory) and Canada’s Ellesmere Island.  The actual border had been left unresolved in 1973 when other matters in the region were resolved but in 1984, Canadian soldiers provoked a border incident by raising the national flag and leaving a bottle of Canadian Whiskey.  In retaliation, the Danish Minister of Greenland Affairs visited the island, respectfully lowering and folding the Canadian flag, raising the Danish standard, taking the whiskey and leaving a bottle of Cognac.  The flag ceremonies and exchanges of bottles of liquor went on until 2005 when both countries agreed on a process to settle the dispute.  Remarkably, this took until 2022 when it was announced a border had been agreed, dividing the inhospitable place equally between the Canadian territory of Nunavut and the Danish constituent country of Greenland.  As geographers and cartographers updated their records, they were pleased to note the historically unusual side-effect the transaction meant Canada and Denmark now shared a land border whereas before, each had a border only with one other country (respectively the US and Germany).

Lindsay Lohan advertising the (fictitious) Japanese chewing gum Number One Happy Whiskey Chew, filmed for the TV show Anger Management, March 2013.  It was interesting to note that what was notionally a Japanese product was labelled "whiskey" rather than "whisky" which is the usual form in the Japanese domestic market.  That may have been something dictated by the sitcom's plot. 

Musk

Musk (pronounced muhsk)

(1) A substance secreted in a glandular sac under the skin of the abdomen of the male musk deer (Moschus Moschiferus), having a strong odor, and once widely used in perfumery; in some contexts, a similar secretion of other animals, as the civet, muskrat, and otter.

(2) A synthetic organic compound used as a substitute for the above.

(3) The odor of musk or some similar odor.

(4) In botany, any of several scrophulariaceous plants of the genus Mimulus, especially the North American M. moschatus, which has yellow flowers and was formerly cultivated for its musky scent; sometimes known as the monkey flower, or, a plant of the genus Erodium (Erodium moschatum); the musky heronsbill.

(5) In zoology, the musk deer (genus Moschus).

1350–1400: From the Middle English musk(e), from the Old & Middle French musc, from the Late Latin muscus (the Medieval Latin was moschus), derived from the Late Greek móskos & móschos.  Root was the Persian mushk, probably from the Sanskrit mushká (scrotum or testicle), a form thought derived from the appearance of the musk deer's musk bag and diminutive of mūsh (mouse).  From either the Persian or the Arabic al misk (the musk), German gained moschos and Spanish has almizcle.  Cognates include the Proto-Germanic musą and the Proto-Slavic mъxъ.).  Ultimately from the Sanskrit मुष्क (muaka) (scrotum or testicle), a diminutive of मूष् (mūṣ) (mouse), the shape of the gland of animals secreting the substance being compared to human testicles; earlier compared to mice, from primitive Indo-European muhas (mouse).

Love is in the Air Limited Edition by the House of Sillage, US$1210.00; includes white musk in the blend.

Some three thousand years ago, in the high plateaus of Asia, between the Himalaya, China and Siberia, there roamed the small, solitary, musk deer and the people of the region came to understand that during their rutting period, the males produced from a gland nestled in their abdomens, a secretion with which to attract females.  In the tradition of pre-modern medicine, men sought to capture the aphrodisiac power of the fluid, hoping female humans too would find it bewitching.  Presumably after some trial and error, what they found was the olfactory properties endured only as long as the gland remained warm under the animal’s skin; upon extraction, the musk dried out, losing its odoriferous power.  Having taken note of the nuance, the men undertook a vast harvest of musk because, as well as musk, the unfortunate cervid was hunted for all else it offered: leather to make bags and soft hair with which to stuff the cushions and mattresses of Chinese emperors.  Already, musk was thought a luxury product and the trade became important to merchants and explorers who would take a pouch to Mediterranean countries where the Arab peoples found the scent enchanting, incorporating it into many rituals conducted to fight evil spells and often, in Islam, it’s said to be the perfume of which the blessed will smell in heaven.  Demand soared and the harvesting grew throughout then twentieth century, peaking in the late 1960s, encouraged by the high profits, musk selling by then for 400,000 francs per kilo.  By the late twentieth century, musk deer populations had been hunted to precariously low levels, disappearing from many parts of their original Himalayan range, its plight recognised in 1973 when the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES) issued a ruling which limited the trade.

According to the authortitive Celebrity Fragrance Guide, Lindsay Lohan is not a user of musk scents and prefers Monyette Paris Coquette Tropique, Monyette Paris Fragrance, Escada Agua Del Sol Eau, Jill Stuarts Jasmin Fleur & Vanilla Lust, Valentino V, Child perfume, Narcisco Rodriguez For Her, Escada (with sea breeze notes), Jill Stuarts Jasmin Fleur & Vanilla Lust.

Cherry Garden by the House of Sillage, US$1200.00; includes white musk in the blend.

Musk was very expensive to produce.  Found only in the mature male, to be used in a scent, the dried gland needed first to be sliced into small pieces, then left in high-strength alcohol to mature for at least months but, more typically, years.  Prepared thus, it possesses a uniquely sweet, aromatic intensity prized especially for its longevity.  Now rare in scent, musk was occasionally used on its own but, such is the potency, it was usually as an additive and, scarce and staggering expensive, perfume houses invested in research to produce a synthetic replica and that was partially successful.

Reputed, at US$1.29 million, to be the world's most expensive scent, fragrance brand The Spirit of Dubai has created just the one bottle of Shumukh (deserving the highest) although the high price is not just for the fluid, the packaging both labour-intensive and containing precious metals and gems.

Economics alone meant the research long pre-dated the action by CITES, chemists by the late nineteenth century working on synthetic ingredients with which to reproduce the musky notes.  What they produced didn’t exactly replicate the characteristic animal smell, but did create what was usually described as evocative of a “clean” odor and this proved popular with laundry detergent vendors.  It was not until 1926 that Croatian-Swiss chemist Leopold Ružička (1887–1976) managed to synthesize an element of natural musk, his work including the first chemical synthesis of male sex hormones, research for which, inter-alia, he was awarded the 1939 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.  Included in this work was his replication of the structure of the compounds muscone the macrocyclic ketone scent from the musk deer.  These are called white musks (as opposed to animal musk) and Dr Ruzicka was the first to synthesize musk at an industrial scale, Firmenech calling the product Exaltone.

Paris Eau de Parfum by Alaïa, US$2500.00; includes white musk in the blend.

Even these precise chemical analogues however can’t quite match the complex odour olfactory effect of animal musk and there are operations in Russia and China using musk harvested from what are described as “sustainably farmed” animals although it’s unclear what that means.