There's a good old Scottish custom that has stood the test o’time, or so the song goes. This custom usually gets reserved for only the oakiest of high society watering holes but in a few weeks, the walls of the St. Albert Public Library are going to absolutely wreak of peat and all those who gather therein will have smiling, appreciative faces.

The library, now known for branching well out into the land of adult programming and fundraisers, has got a “wee deoch an doris” (a nightcap) to satisfy even the most finicky of palates. The facility is bringing in a special guest and a selection of whiskies for the tasting.

Andrew Walls is known as the master of malts at the Alberta Scotch Society. If there’s any person out there who can talk about which malt is best to sip on at 9 in the morning, it’s him.

“My first memories are of growing up in a distillery,” he recalled with the undeniable brogue of a true islander lilting and rolling its way across each ‘R’.

“My father had a massive collection. My first job at 18 was working at a whisky shop.”

For a few hours on the first weekend of March, Walls (the proprietor of his own scotch-centred entertainment event business called Walls of Whisky) will bring in a selection of several malts chosen by St. Albert’s Unwined Fine Wine Spirits & Ales.

It’ll be as authentic an experience as he can make it, right down to the last detail.

“It’s a whisky tasting so I’ll be there with my kilt on. I’ll have my ceremonial sword too. It’s a replica from the 1700s with an old Jacobean basket hilt. We’ll be talking a bit about the different whiskies.”

He wasn’t sure if traditional Scottish food would be served.

“I don’t know if they’re bringing a haggis in. If they are, of course, we’ll be doing the Ode to a Haggis,” he said, referring to the homage to the feast scribed by Scotland’s poet of the ages, Robbie Burns.

“Undoubtedly I’ll probably get a little bit of Burns’ poetry out because, let’s face it, it’s still Burns season.”

Admission proceeds will go to the Friends of the St. Albert Public Library.

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