The Lions Toast
Our Whisk(e)y (and other) tastings
At the end of each meeting, we have "The Lions Toast" - a traditional toast to Lions Clubs International which lets us drain off the remnants of the glasses that have seen us through the rigours of a busy evening. One of our members, an exiled Scot, as he drained his Glenfiddich malt whisky, suddenly had the inspiration for a fundraising event and being Scottish, the rest is history.
When we look at fundraising activities, we like to have a variety of different events not only to appeal to as wide an audience as possible but often to make full use of the skills our members have and so by mixing a Scottish, Malt Enthusiast who has significant fundraising skills, The Lions Toast series of whisky tastings came into life.
The series started in 2013 with Malt and More and we have tried to run at least one event each year since. Our initial offering was attended by 25 people whilst Spirit of India had over 70 attending to taste the products of an Indian Distillery, John Distillers Pv. We also had a Gin evening with entertainment and recently moved into the world of wine. Have a look at our past events below.
Our Next Event
We'll be having a presentation on: 'How to Invest in Whisky'
Watch this space for further details!
Come back here for information as it becomes available and if you would like to be added to our distribution list, please send us your email address via our Contact Us page. That way you will always be updated about what we have in the pipeline.
Have a look at what we have done, over the years (Click on any highlighted title for more details). Thanks to these events we have managed to raise over £7500 for our charitable activities!
Past 'Toasts'
Whisky of the
Middle East
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On this occasion, we explored a dram from a completely different country - one which is certainly not one that comes to mind when thinking about whisky. Where is it? Israel of course - and the relatively new distillery in Tel Aviv, called Milk & Honey. On the 12th May, at the Carlton House Club, we met Shilton Almedia, the European Ambassador from Milk & Honey, who gave us a taste of this surprisingly good whisky, one of which has just been declared "The Best Whisky in the World for 2023". A great night was had by all!
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| The Grape Alternative |
A number of those attending our Whisky Tastings, asked if we would do a wine tasting so for a change we focussed on wine and knowing little or nothing about the drink, roped in Stefan Botfield, owner of the Wine Cellar, in Market Place, Olney. Stefan supplied a range of 8 wines from the 4 corners of the (Lions) world and we had a great turn out. The event, unlike our others, was actually run by Stefan Botfield, proprietor of the Wine Cellar, in Market Place, Olney (also in Woburn) with Lions benefitting from a percentage of the ticket sales, a raffle which he also supported with a couple of magnificent prizes and........in order to assure a success on the fundraising front, gave us a % of the sales which he made on the night. The event raised over £500 for our charity account.
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The Local Connection
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Simon Caughlin is CEO of the new Spirits Division of Rémy Cointreau, having been the CEO of Bruichladdich Distillery in Islay prior to its sale to the famous brand. He travelled to Olney with 8 of his companies products to showcase them to our audience of over 50. Many of the bottles are generally unavailable from normal outlets in England and with a total retail value in excess of £1700, this was our most exclusive tasting to date made all the better by having such a major player in the industry present. An illustrated presentation accompanied the drinks as we learned how he and a group of private investors remained with traditional distilling, rejecting the technology route that so many distillers have adopted. Over the years since reconstruction, local farmers and landowners have reintroduced strains of barley, long lost to the Island enabling the creation of a range of whiskies that is true to its Provenance. The evening was a resounding success with £700 having been raised to which Simon has intimated that he will ensure is £1000 by the time we make the presentation to DrugFAM.
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Svensk Whiskyprovning
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Moving offshore again with a presentation of 8 expressions of Mackmyra, the whisky from Sweden. Shane Pirie and Matt Wilson from the distillery gave a brilliant presentation event which had many of the audience astounded by the quality and variety of offerings from what is not normally a recognised as a whisky producing country. Peated, non peated, pure spirit and everything in between really did impress the 40 attending. Not to be left out, Richard from the Carlton Club produced the food course which just had to be Swedish Meatballs. A great night that raised over £540 for our charity work.
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| Islands of Dreams |
This event concentrated on introducing the 50 folks attending to the Islands around the West Coast and some of the whiskies produced there. A short video tour introduced the Island and Nick Worricker of Duncan Murray Wines and Spirits of Market Harborough introduced the 7 different whiskies which were tasted. A coin toss for a bottle of Six Isles Blended Malt Whisky raised £87, an introduction to the Scottish meal of 'Stovies' and an auction for a Miniature sized bottle of Bruichladdich X4 generated a magnificent £100 making a total of £400 raised for the nights charity - The Batten Disease Family Association.
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| Gin & Swing |
This was our first venture into a gin tasting and having no real experts to call upon, it had to be a bit different. We had Andrew Hutchison, a great singer in the Sinatra, Bublé & Martin vein who hails from Milton Keynes joining us to provide entertainment to the audience of around 60. To help them enjoy the evening we had around 30 gins from Iceland to Italy, Scotland to Sweden and a few local to the Buckingham, Northants area. Superb support from Fever Tree which saw them donating over 100 bottles of their product and the event really did go with a swing.
Another profitable evening for our charity account when over £300 was raised.
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| An E or not an E |
Ask many Scotsmen what is the most annoying thing about their National Drink and many will respond with "Folks that can't spell it properly", referring of course to the fact that Scotch is spelt Whisky and a number of other nations offerings is spelt Whiskey. In an effort to both educate our audience to the spelling and explain the difference between Scotch and Irish Whiskey, we ran this evening which took the form of a 'blind' tasting. Many were amazed at their success in identifying the various products and we added over £400 to our charity account. Our food offering consisted of Haggis and Irish Stew - both served on the same plate! Find out how we did by clicking here.
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| The Spirit of India |
To reflect the 'International' aspect of Lionism, when some of our members and friends attended a major Whisky Tasting in London and discovered Paul John Indian whisky, they were so impressed that they just had to arrange a tasting in Olney. Supported by Shilton Almeida, the distillery representative in the UK, we were delighted to expose our, now growing band of Malt enthusiasts to this amazing whisky but another venture including food was called for when we added a couple of curries to help create an Asian atmosphere. By now, our ticket sales have reached 70 and we raised £1400 - read about the night by clicking on the title to the left.
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| Malt at the Movies |
A showing of Ken Loache's movie, "The Angels Share" saw our audience enjoying the same whiskies as the cast as they did their research and homework prior to carrying out the theft of the Century. Support from a number of the distilleries involved in the filming including some personalised items from Charles Maclean (Rory McAllister in the film and world famous whisky guru), Northampton Saints Rugby Club and Lion Derek Seymour saw us being able to run our own version of the Auction. No £m whisky, I'm afraid but a brilliant ending to a superb night attended by over 60 people which contributed to increasing our Charity Account to the tune of £800.
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Malt Masterchef
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Working with the management of The Bull Inn and Bill Hutchison of Gordon & McPhail, the evening consisted of a 7 course meal accompanied by 9 different whiskies. A fabulous night that saw many preconceived ideas which people had on whisky at the dining table being challenged and views changing significantly - did we turn people off the wines normally served with meals - perhaps not but new ideas have been exposed whilst we raised £500 from the venture. A fabulous night from our friends at the Bull who, incidentally, as a result of the interest in Malt whisky which Lions have generated in town, are now carrying a selection of 46 different malts.
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More Malt
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Our second event aimed at introducing those attending to the different expressions of whisky that can come from a single distillery. Presented by Dr Andrew Forrester, brand ambassador of The Balvenie distillery we experienced their Doublewood Cask 12, 17 year old, first Fill, Caribbean Cask and the 21 year old Portwood. An evening filled with loads of distillery stories, anecdotes and humour from an excellent orator gave us a great result thanks to the drams being provided by The Balvenie - £1200 into our charity account
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Malt & More
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Our first venture into the world of malt whisky including an educational tasting led by Michael Hoppert, Royal Mile Whiskies, London which covered whiskies from all major Scottish areas, Wales and England. We also featured stalls containing a collection of almost 200 whiskies, library of whisky books, exhibitions from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society and the Whisky Magazine. A number of distilleries and individuals within the industry contributed to the success of this our inaugural event. The evening raised over £500 - not bad for our first attempt.
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