These are adult beverages, with a tight beard and strong muscles … Treated, however, with courtesy, they answer with a gentle embrace of kindness and with an aroma which is not less gentle than that of sympathy…
The spirits to be drunk have to be always, however, of the highest quality – delicate, subtle, without the slightest hint of the roughness that characterize the inferior products – in such a way that even alone they outrival many of the famous brandy. And of these, in this blessed Portuguese turf, you can still find them with relative frequency.

in “The Book of Pantagruel”, 36th edition, Portugal.