Nardini’s Cafe, Largs
Ayrshire coast at Largs, looking north.
And what a name that is! Savour it for a moment, roll it around your mouth and pronounce it with pride. Scots. Mac. It’s the auditory encapsulation of the Caledonian, the pure dead brilliant summation of Scotishness in two syllables.
Alas, though it is still made, Scotsmac is no longer manufactured in Largs or even in Scotland. And I have to tell you that, in my considered opinion, having tracked down a botle and tasted it, it is best avoided. And it probably always was.
Scotsmac, like the beter known Buckfast Tonic wine, is an example of the phenomenon known colloquially as electric soup, and is a potent, relatively cheap mixture of South African wine, sugar and whisky, probably grain though I have no way of knowing and my tastebuds are no longer in a fit condition to tell. Spectrum analysis may help.
It originated in July 1961 when James, or Jimmy Wham, a local hero returned from World War Two, turned the old cinema into the centre of his wholesale wine and spirits business. Having contacted the ‘South African Wine Farmers Association’ he came up with the idea of producing a ‘sherry’ for distribution in Scotland, and according to the Largs and Millport Weekly News, this was launched to great acclaim as ‘Kimberley Royal Cream’. At the time, Mr Wham’s former cinema was known as ‘The Brisbane Cellars’ and the new ‘Largs sherry’ was sold in a cut-glass decanter imported from Portugal, with a glass stopper atached for use aſter opening. At 13 shillings and sixpence, it seems a bargain, particularly when you read that it was sold at ‘the maximum alcoholic strength permited in a sherry’ - an enormous 42 per cent, - stronger than most whiskies, which at the time would have been watered for sale to around 40 percent.
Sophisticated Scotish tastes not succumbing to the blandishments of Kimberley Royal Cream, (apparently Mr Wham and his ‘winemaster’ tried 400 different South African wines
28 February 2016
Batle of Largs by William Hole
before making their final choice), the potent tipple became Scotsmac, majoring on its fortification with whisky, and available in half and quarter botles, became (certainly when I was at school) a down-the-sock substitute for the real cratur, suitable for the finances of under aged schoolboys and illegal fortification of Cream Soda and the like at school discos.
The Wham empire has long gone but Scotsmac still has a following, and is available at Aldi and Lidl among other outlets. A few years ago I conducted an ‘alternative Scotish tasting’ aimed at investigating our propensity for drinks of a certain kind. So we tried Irn Bru, Buckfast, Scotsmac and finally Famous Grouse, Scotland’s favourite blend, arguably because its name incorporates the ‘grrr’ sound some say Scotish males enjoy making more than any other. I have to say that nothing went down too well, including me. Buckfast, if you’ve never tried it, is both expensive and disgusting in a way that only a so-called ‘tonic’ could be. And frankly, Scotsmac is both harsh and sticky.
Maybe the vikings would have enjoyed it. Or maybe, aſter just the merest whiff, they would have turned tail and headed off out to sea, their galleys between their legs.
Scotsmac, like the better known Buck- fast Tonic wine, is an example of the phenomenon known colloquially as electric soup
If you are to try a mixture of sherry and whisky, beter by far to investigate one of the fine single malts that are aged in former sherry casks - and they’re becoming rarer as are the casks themselves. Highland Park is among the distilleries sourcing wood from their own forests now, having them filled with sherry just so they can subsequently be used for whisky.
My recommendations? Try an Aberlour or a Glenfarclas. Made in Scotland, perhaps not as Scots- sounding as ‘Scotsmac’, but much, much nicer!
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