Loch Lomond Old Scotch Whisky

I'm a huge fan of The Adventures of Tintin, by Hergé.  One of my favourite characters is Captain Haddock.  He is a brash, cynical, alcoholic tramp freighter captain with a heart of gold, who has a command of the art of cursing that is simply astounding.  He doesn't bother with mere four-letter words, instead he's known to belt out colourful repertoire to include "bashi-bazouk", "visigoths", "sea gherkin", "steam rollers", "vegetarians", "carpet seller", "pickled herring; "freshwater swabs", "miserable molecule of mildew", and a host of other insults, but again, nothing actually considered a swear word.

Another thing Captain Haddock is known for, is drinking Loch Lomond Scotch Whisky the way other people drink water (in one issue, "Tintin and the Shooting Star", the Captain gets sick when he drinks water, and is restored to health by a glass of whisky.  Later when they return from being the first explorers on the moon, and is suffering from hypoxia, a little whisky restores him again).

The text reads “Are you depressed? Does the day seem long? We have the answer. Loch Lomand”. 

A typically Herge ironic attack on advertising and alcohol.

The immensely talented Kevin DG from the Replica Prop Forum has generously allowed me to share his marvelous Loch Lomond Whisky label.   Click here to Download.

Clean the original label off of a bottle of your favourite Scotch, then print out the new label on a nice matte paper, cut the label out, and spread rubber cement on the back of the label.  Then paste it onto the bottle.  You'll probably want to use a few rubber bands to secure placement on the bottle until the rubber cement sets up.

Now, if one of your players is a scotch drinker, or if one of the NPC's on the train is a British military veteran or retired sea captain, you can have a bottle of scotch thats labeled in a much more interesting fashion.  And give a nod to one of the classic pulp-action comic heroes, and one of the best pulp-action comic series.

Please drink responsibly.

Champagne

If you've seen the new Leonardo DiCaprio movie, "The Great Gatsby", you might have noticed that DiCaprio's Gatsby loves Moët & Chandon champagne.

Fitzgerald’s novel does not specify the brand Gatsby’s revelers consumed copious amounts of, but the producer and director of DiCaprios film, with very good reasons, assumed it was Moët & Chandon. The company was an early pioneer in the export of champagne to lucrative overseas markets including the US and UK back when it was still largely a local secret; a French wine for domestic consumption. In doing this, the company was at the forefront of the now global reputation champagne has for excellence, one that allows it to enjoy an uncontested premium in price, perception and prestige over every other sparkling wine region on earth.

Its likely that the Orient Express, with its penchant for no-expense-spared quality would opt for champagne from Moët & Chandon.

Now, you can take the above image and size it however you want, or

Print this PDF, whatever works for you.  Its best if you print it on matte paper.

Cut the label out, and using rubber cement, glue it onto your bottle.

I've found that its usually easiest to use water to soften the paper on the bottle and peel it off, then using steel wool or something similar, scrub any things left over off the bottle.  Dry it well, then, put rubber cement on the new label, and place it on the bottle.  use a few rubber bands to hold it in place until the rubber cement sets up.

Now, I hope that Moët & Chandon won't mind that I copied a label of theirs that I found on a google image search, and pasted it into a .pdf document so that I can print it out, and relabel a couple bottles of Martenellis sparkling cider as champagne, for effect.

Moet's Web Page