Which is what Hugh probably meant. I'm not a great drinker of spirits myself, although I am a spirited drinker. Here, as posted here before, is Wendy Cope, who got bored making cocoa for Kingsley Amis and decided to parody Shakespeare's "The expense of spirits in a waste of shame/Is lust in action ....":

The expense of spirits is a crying shame,
So is the cost of wine. What bard today
Can live like old Khayyám? It’s not the same—
A loaf and Thou and Tesco’s Beaujolais.
I had this bird called Sharon, fond of gin—
Could knock back six or seven. At the price
I paid a high wage for each hour of sin
And that was why I only had her twice.
Then there was Tracy, who drank rum and Coke,
So beautiful I didn’t mind at first
But love grows colder. Now some other bloke
Is subsidizing Tracy and her thirst.
I need a woman, honest and sincere,
Who’ll come across on half a pint of beer.

—Wendy Cope (1986)