Group spirit: The rise of whisky clubs in Singapore
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Group spirit: The rise of whisky clubs in Singapore
More whisky enthusiasts are going online to form clubs to share their dear for the golden spirit.
Benjamin Tan, founder of Whisky Butler, and James Phang, founder of Singapore Liquid Gold Club. (Photos: Benjamin Tan, James Phang)
29 October 2022 06:26AM (Updated: 29 Oct 2022 09:31AM)
As a member of whisky club Singapore Liquid Gold Gild (SLGC) on Facebook, Mitchell Lai is always the first to hear almost launches of express edition whiskies and other collectible bottles. He also gets to nourish whisky-themed dinners and geek out about drams "with no sentence from fellow enthusiasts".
The biggest benefit, he said, has been the friendships he has fabricated with boyfriend members. "We have shared milestones in life, visited each other over meals – yes, with whiskies – and fifty-fifty holidayed abroad together, with distillery visits as part of our agenda," said Lai, 47, an employee in the education sector. He became interested in Scotch whisky after a family trip to the Scottish Highlands in 2017.
Lai is i of the 3,000-odd members of SLGC, ane of the small merely growing number of Singapore-based whisky clubs and communities that accept emerged online in recent years. More oft than not, the groups are run by whisky enthusiasts instead of whisky bar owners; dram lovers who want to attain out to agreeing folk in net and share their passion for the golden spirit.
SLGC was founded in 2022 by James Phang, 33, a former relationship manager of a bank, who had caught the whisky issues. SLGC was then largely a trading customs, where people could purchase and sell whiskies, and organise group purchases from overseas shops to defray shipping costs.
In 2019, Facebook banned the sales and trading of alcohol products between users, prompting Phang to pin SLGC to a purely customs page.
Phang said that anyone tin join SLGC, with the but requirement that a potential member'southward Facebook page should not exist a new account to foreclose scams.
Before the pandemic, when physical meetups were possible, Phang would organise activities in whisky bars and people's homes, where the latter would involve members bringing their own whiskies to share with others. Nearly people adopt a "sharing is caring" mindset, he said, but at that place are certain behaviours that are frowned upon.
"The things that are normally shunned upon equally negative behaviour include tabao-ing [taking away] samples of someone's canteen, or helping yourself to multiple servings of the most expensive bottle, without the courtesy of asking the bottle's owner," said Phang. "We commonly don't mandate any rules, simply information technology is through natural selection that people exhibiting such behaviour tend non to become re-invited again."
The bulk of SLGC'southward members are locals who are white-collar workers, typically 35-twelvemonth-old to 55-yr-erstwhile males, said Phang, adding that in that location has been a surge in younger drinkers who started whisky appreciation in their early 20s, and a minor but growing segment of female person drinkers in their 30s.
Every bit the pandemic has put a dampener on physical gatherings, SLGC is presently focusing on special releases from bars for group purchases and pocket-size bottle samples for abode consumption.
"Generally, people can exist apprehensive in committing to a full bottle buy before tasting, and at that place is no better way than doing bottle splits, [such equally] repackaging them into 30ml or 50ml formats to let members endeavour new releases," said Phang, who has worked with alcohol companies Diageo and Edrington to organise tastings of their whisky brands.
Phang has also started Liquid Gold Auctioneer, which he claimed is the first online auctioning platform based out of Asia. Information technology is "modelled later on the best features of auction houses originating out of the UK".
"The thought of creating an online auction house within an Asian time zone is to circumvent the need to camp on UK-based auction sites at 3am, and likewise to enjoy lower shipping costs due to closer proximity [between the auction firm, sellers and buyers] in Southeast Asia," said Phang. "Nosotros'd too encourage more independent bottling releases from bottlers in Southeast Asia to menstruum through us, equally opposed to having to send their bottles all the way to the Britain."
Other whisky clubs let their members determine how they'd want to concord their tasting sessions. Whisky Butler, an online whisky club founded by Benjamin Tan in 2015, lets people customise their own whisky events, anything from a whisky 101 class to an online whisky omakase session.
The club initially started out equally a subscription service, where members would be sent iv 20ml whisky samples every month. Only Tan, 36, a old business annotator with McKinsey, decided to cease the subscription feature three years ago, citing the lack of critical mass hither in Singapore. People can at present buy the samples, such equally a Bowmore 12 Yr Old or the rare Glenglassaugh xl Twelvemonth Sometime 1975 PX Sherry Hogshead Cask, from their website.
There is no fee to join Whisky Butler – people pay only for the tasting sessions. With COVID-19 restrictions, virtual tasting sessions take place about twice a calendar month at present, with customers beingness sent whisky samples earlier the sessions get-go.
Tan said: "Before the pandemic, nosotros had whisky-pairing dinners, whisky-blending classes too as leather-making workshops for our customers on a bi-monthly basis."
He is looking forward to hosting more physical events in the future. Belatedly concluding twelvemonth, he decided to merge Whisky Butler with TSH Corporation, which operates whisky and cocktail confined – notably whisky specialist Quaich Bar – and whisky retailer The Whisky Store.
It was a win-win state of affairs. Tan said TSH felt their merger would allow the latter to strengthen its presence online. The Whisky Butler, on the other hand, would exist able to source more whiskies from The Whisky Store'due south all-encompassing portfolio. Information technology would also have admission to members from The Whisky Store'southward Collectors Lodge, a membership program for whisky aficionados to ain limited edition releases.
Tan also helps out at the Signature Reserve whisky bar – a collaboration between Quaich Bar and Whisky Butler – at The Fullerton Hotel Singapore.
He said whisky drinkers here are getting more sophisticated. "Two years ago, Japanese whiskies were very popular, only now people are moving away from them and starting to be more open-minded. They want us to curate things that are more exclusive. Nosotros are too getting requests for modest sessions to be hosted privately in people'due south homes."
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Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/experiences/whisky-clubs-singapore-286371
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