Auld Acrimony could have been a standard supermarket blended Scotch, or it may well have been a tongue-in-cheek product designed to satisfy the egos of two Safeway directors, Alastair Grant and David Webster.

Along with James Gulliver, the pair had founded what later became grocery business Argyll Foods. After Gulliver left the business in 1986 following a failed takeover bid for Distillers Company Ltd (DCL), Grant and Webster steered Argyll Foods to purchase the UK operations of US supermarket giant Safeway.

Auld Acrimony was launched not long after, produced by Grant and Webster Distillers (note: they never owned a distillery). Perhaps as a swipe at the failed DCL takeover, the label shows two rutting stags with entwined antlers, perhaps symbolic of Argyll Foods’ battle against Guinness plc, which eventually – infamously – succeeded in acquiring the DCL.

Along with Gulliver and merchant banker Angus Grossart, Grant and Webster had been heavily involved in the doomed bid and it could well be that Auld Acrimony was their parting shot at the whole sorry affair.

It should be noted, however, that Alastair Grant (later Sir Alastair) was a very keen country sportsman. Whatever the reasons for the brand’s existence, once it sold out it never reappeared.

Safeway was eventually sold to Wm Morrison Supermarkets plc in 2003.