He is perhaps the showiest performer since Vladimir de Pachmann, a Chopin specialist of a century ago who used to milk cows to exercise his fingers and dip each digit in a glass of brandy before recitals.

NEWYORKER: The Olympian

"Drink this, " he handed the glass of Spanish brandy to Robert Jordan.

NPR: Robert Jordan, Hemingway's Bipartisan Hero

Fidgeting on his feet, Pesho soon joins us, pulling up a chair and pouring us each a glass of his own plum rakia (brandy).

BBC: The Black Sea by Moskvitch