34 • AGENDA
• COLUMN The Last Drop Branching out
Husband-and-wife team Ina Kraan and Brad Richards reflect on their journey from discovering the Society to setting up a branch in Switzerland
AS TOLD TO JIM BYERS
DISCOVERING THE SOCIETY We first came across the Society when we were living in Edinburgh in the early 1990s while studying computer science at the university. I’m from Switzerland and my husband Brad is from Texas, so we thought that, as we were in Scotland, we better get to know about whisky. We had heard about this interesting
whisky society, but it took us a very long time to find it. When we finally found it, it turned out it was only two blocks away from our flat! We spent many evenings in The Vaults with one whisky between us as we couldn’t afford more – and it was warmer there than in our flat! After graduating, we decided to move
to Switzerland. We asked if there was a Society there and the staff at The Vaults said ‘no, you’ll have to do that yourself’ and Brad said ‘Ok, why not, let’s do it!’
EARLY BEGINNINGS We set up our branch of the Society
in 1994. At first, we ran the Society from our apartment in Basel. When we started, we ended up with lots of boxes of whisky in our bedroom closet, and they soon spread into the hallway and we were tripping over boxes all the time. We were both working a lot at that time – Brad was teaching at a university in southern Germany and I was a researcher at the University of Zurich. And we started a family at the same time as starting the Society, so it was a busy time!
FIRST HOME As our apartment was full of whisky, we realised we had to find something more permanent. In 1995, we found an old mill to rent in Embrach which is just north of Zurich – it was a beautiful location with a room downstairs that we could hold events in. Things took off very quickly there
– we had a brief mention in a Zurich newspaper and, after that, the phone
rang all day with enquiries about the Society and membership. We had a lot of fun there – not to mention a few disasters as we were learning how to run an event properly. In the beginning, Brad and I would run the tastings ourselves – we had to take our babies along sometimes until we eventually found some people who helped us out. We ended up spending about five
years there, but eventually it became too small so we moved to our current location in Schönenwerd in 2000.
SPECIAL PLACE Our Members’ Room sits in a gorgeous location. The house is very beautiful and striking. We live in the upstairs part of the house while the Members’ Room is downstairs. We have established a very loyal customer base here and there’s a real community spirit, which is quite unusual for Switzerland as the Swiss are usually quite reserved. For example, at our Burns Night event
ILLUSTRATION: JAMES TAYLOR
in January, one member was at the market in Basel and saw what he thought were ‘neeps’ [turnips]. He bought one, came to the house to show it to me, and then went back and bought another 10kgs for our event. It was just a small gesture but it is typical of the way our members have become friends and like to help out. There are lots of special people like that. Our members are very interesting people too. We once had a member who was a fire-eater and he gave us a demonstration using Society whisky at a tasting. He took a mouthful of whisky and opened the window and blew a huge flame into the air! I think the high alcohol content of the Society whisky helped him.
THE JOURNEY CONTINUES We always wanted to have a Members’ Room because we think the Society is as much about conviviality as whisky. And we have always believed that running the Society is more than just running a whisky business. Setting up the branch has been a really enjoyable and interesting journey for us.
THE SCOTCH MALT WHISKY SOCIETY
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