Seldom has there been a greater contrast between the makers of a product and those who consume it. For while the Benedictine monks of Buckfast Abbey in Devon rise at 5.25am to begin a day of prayer, some of those who drink their famous fortified wine are in a police cell.
A documentary has revealed that Buckfast tonic wine - aka Buckie, Wreck the Hoose Juice, Commotion Lotion, and Liquid Speed - has played a part in more than 5,000 crimes in Strathclyde in the past three years. The bottle is also a popular weapon. As a result, the Right Rev Bob Gillies has said St Benedict would be 'very, very unhappy' with the monks who make it.
So just what exactly is this Devil's brew? A red wine-based aperitif, it is 15 per cent alcohol, costs just £5.49 and is largely drunk by the young and underprivileged. Born out of religious devotion, it is believed that the original French monks who settled in Buckfast Abbey in the 1880s brought the recipe - still used today - with them.
But research at Polmont offenders' institution in West Lothian reveals that more than 40 per cent of those who had consumed alcohol immediately before committing their crime had been drinking Buckfast. Scary stuff.
But sales of the drink - whose unofficial catchphrase is 'made by monks for drunks' - have soared to £37million in the past five years, with Scots spending more than £50,000 a day on it.
It seems some just can't resist the lure of a bottle of Buckie...
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