Over vintage brandy and cigars, we examined the bill: £62.

Reading the report over brandy would be a pleasant reward for the day's work.

After dinner the talk went on in the living-room over coffee and brandy.

'Investing in the future,' the old billionaire had said over after-dinner brandy.

This he told me over brandy, in the same room in the stronghouse we had originally occupied.

But there was little time to linger over brandy; the check arrived with dessert.

In those days, ladies were expected to disappear upstairs to allow the men to converse over cigars and brandy.

"I suppose we'll never know exactly what happened," Donovan said, over coffee and brandy, some time later.

And his stories, with their little twists at the end, seem more suited to conversation over brandy than to even a small screen.

We talked for a few minutes over brandy in the drawing room and she seemed quite friendly.