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Up All Scotched
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[and someplace to go]
The Calgary Scotch Club is a new guy's group in town. Sure, it begins with beer, but ends with decade-old scotch and Scottish cuisine like haggis. Conversation ranges from the strength of the scotch to sports. The Club pursues expensive and hard to find scotch at local retailers around Calgary. Quirk Magazine spent time with The Calgary Scotch Club at their November scotch tasting and got a sense of what these men are all about.
story by BRANDON ANSON photos by JORDEN DIXON
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ith the late-night hockey game on the TV and haggis in the oven, Dwayne Blume, 48, offers a beer to those who begin to filter into his southeasthome. Shortly after 8 p.m., when more than a dozen friends have gathered in his kitchen, Blume begins reading from a paper printout and thus another scotch tasting of the Calgary Scotch Club begins. Founded in April 2010, the Calgary Scotch Club consists of 16 members — all men. They come from several walks of life with ages ranging from late 20s to early 60s. Robert Ronca, one of the hosts of tonight’s meeting is a retired teacher and the other host, Blume, works as a golf course general manager. The club is split up into eight groups of two who hold each month’s tasting. Hosts are responsible for the preparation of any foods to pair with the scotch, as well as the two bottles of scotch for the tasting. “We usually keep it fairly high end [and] try to get unique scotch,” said Travis Adlington, a member of the club since its inception. Ronca and Blume set the tone for the evening with two rare and hard-to-find scotches: a 10 and an 11-year-old Ben Nevis, the latter bottled by A.D. Rattray. The 10-year-old Douglas Laing’s Old Malt Cask distilled by Ben Nevis from Scotland is labeled as discontinued online with prices around $100.