Poor old Cognac, French brandy. First sales collapse in China as anti-corruption rules tighten and today it suffers a reputational mauling in the UK’s largest circulation newspaper, the Mail on Sunday. The headline says it all “Britons demand Euro exit: Shock MoS poll says voters agree Cameron was right to block president… (and worry over claims new man has cognac at breakfast).” Cognac is equated with extravagance, alcoholism, bullying and general bad behaviour.

The story continues to describe the new European Commission President and former prime minister of Luxembourg, Jean Claude Juncker, as a hardened boozer.

A former Tory Foreign Office Minister who has worked with him closely said he drinks so heavily he ‘dribbles’ during meetings and is often ‘incapable of working after lunchtime’. And a newspaper in Mr Juncker’s native Luxembourg carried lurid details of a drinking binge he allegedly embarked upon. The prominent British politician, who served as Minister for Europe, told The Mail on Sunday: ‘All the stories about Juncker’s drinking are true. I know because I had to work with him. He is a complete drunk. ‘I regarded it as pointless talking to him after 12 o’clock because at times he seemed incapable of working, so drunk you couldn’t get any sense out of him. It is every bit as bad as people say. I have seen him so p****d that he was dribbling. ‘Everyone in Brussels knows that Juncker drinks far too much. I would call him an alcoholic. Talk to European politicians in private and they will all tell you about his drink problem.’

The evidence presented (above) is that he downed three glasses of wine, a Campari and three Sambucas in only two hours, which seems modest consumption by SA wine hack standards. But it is neither Sambuca nor wine nor Campari that carries the can. Cognac is identified as the quintessential drink of diplomatic dipsomania. Which is lethal for the reputation of the spirit. Indeed it was the question the Mail posed to UK voters in a poll.

The most curious revelation concerns the toilet preferences of Herr Juncker. “When he has to take a leak during a summit meeting, he says with a smirk he goes to the ladies’ room, because the men’s room is too dirty for him. His image fluctuates between two extremes, Mr Euro and Mr Idiot.” So if the EU President ever comes to SA, care must be taken not to book him into Whale Cottage Camps Bay or Franschhoek where cleanliness complaints from German speaking visitors are numerous.