An offering you can’t refuse
Luvian’s Bottle Shop has built a reputation for fine drinks products. Gavin Smith looks at its whisky offering
The historic university town of St Andrews in north-east Fife is renowned the world over as the home of golf. Recently, however, it has also been attracting attention because one of its current undergraduates is Prince William.
The chances are that if His Royal Highness requires a drop of Château Mouton-Rothschild 1990 or a sparking shiraz to go with dinner he will call into Luvian’s Bottle Shop on Market Street, where he will also be faced with a tantalising array of more than 500 whiskies.
The man responsible for sourcing all those whiskies is Vince Fusaro, Keeper of the Quaich, whose family of award-winning ice cream makers also operates a similar outlet in the nearby town of Cupar. The Fusaros have been in Fife since 1961, having originally come to Scotland from Italy by way of Ayrshire.
Brothers Vincent, Anthony and Luigi, opened their delicatessen and specialist off-licence business in Cupar in 1983, and the St Andrews Bottle Shop followed in 1996. It boasts a clientele of golfers, students, tourists and discerning locals, and today sales of whisky make papproximately 30 per cent of the company’s overall business.
“We opened in Cupar on Christmas Eve 1983â€, recalls Vince. “Our opening whisky stock was two bottles of Glenmorangie, two Glenfiddich, two Chivas Regal, and two Johnnie Walker Black Label.
“Two or three years on from that I saw that Oddbins was boasting that their shops had more than 20 whiskies.
“I took a look at our shelves and saw that.....
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By Gavin D. Smith
Section : Whisky Spotlight
Page number : 28
