Cognac for Churchill
Surely, there is no person who does not know about the great politician, the Prime Minister of Great Britain – Winston Churchill. It was a bright and controversial personality, but, nevertheless, left a bright mark on history.
It was because of his fame and significance that his figure was overgrown with many rumors and legends. What is real and what is not, is quite difficult to figure out.
Lifestyle
Churchill lived a long life, dying at the age of 90. At the same time, until his death, he abused smoking cigars and drinking alcoholic beverages, despite the warnings of doctors. Churchill’s biographers claim that he smoked about 8-10 cigars a day. His personal nurse wrote the book Caring for Churchill, where she described what the patient drank during the day: ten ounces of champagne (about 280 milliliters), brandy two ounces, orange juice eight ounces, whiskey eight ounces.
Despite this, the politician lived a long busy life and considered the secret of his longevity to his “talent” – to fall asleep anywhere, at any time. Given his hectic activity without days off, this helped him recuperate.
Alcoholic drinks
British researchers have calculated that between 1908 and 1965, Churchill drank 42,000 bottles of champagne, which is 2 bottles a day. In addition, in the morning he drank light wine or scotch diluted with water, and in the evening he drank port wine.
Churchill said that he could not live without champagne, because in a victory he deserved it, and in a defeat he needed it.
Thus, champagne was perhaps the most favorite drink for the politician and, apparently, he never limited himself in the amount of alcohol he drank.
Armenian cognac
There are several legends associated with Armenian cognac.
During the Yalta Conference in February 1945, Stalin treated Churchill to Armenian cognac. Allegedly after this, Churchill drank a bottle of fifty-degree cognac “Dvin” every day, which Stalin sent him every month in a box. Once, in 1951, he discovered that cognac had lost its former taste, Churchill complained to Stalin. It turned out that the chief technologist of the Yerevan brandy factory Markar Sedrakyan, who was engaged in the blending of Dvin, was exiled to Siberia. He was returned, reinstated in the party. And Churchill was again satisfied with the quality of cognac. And Sedrakyan 20 years later, in 1971, received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
There is another version of this legend. At the Tehran conference, the British Prime Minister was presented with two boxes of Armenian Dvin cognac. For some reason, Churchill forgot about the gift for a whole year, but one day, returning at an inopportune time to Downing Street, he found his butler with a cigar and a glass of an unknown drink, which turned out to be Dvin. Having learned that this cognac goes well with his favorite cigars, Churchill already told Stalin about this at the Yalta Conference and later until his death he received a case of Dvin a month.
Truth or lie?
Given the fame of the great politician, of course there are many biographers, in particular British ones, who have carefully studied Churchill’s life, collecting information from various sources.
The authors of the book “Armenian Food: Fact, Fiction & Folklore” report that they could not find evidence of this legend either in Churchill’s memoirs or in Mikoyan’s memoirs. According to the Churchill Museum website, his favorite brandy/cognac was Hine.
The legends were actively supported with the help of Soviet bibliographers, either for political or marketing purposes.
Despite all of the above, Churchill really drank Armenian cognac, appreciating it, but it was more a diplomatic drink than a personal one, and there is no information about the supply of cognac to the policy after 1946.
While Armenian cognac may not have been Churchill’s favorite drink, the very fact that this drink was used in diplomatic meetings with Stalin speaks volumes.
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