The Tianjin Single Malt Club in conjunction with the Beijing Scottish Society has arranged a very rare and special event for Tianjin.

Tianjin's first Scottish Whisky Dinner is to be held at the Ritz Carlton on Friday the 28th of August. The private gardens of the hotel are the perfect venue for hosting a summer evening dinner and we have some spectacular things planned for you.

You will be invited to enjoy a 5 course dinner matched with some highly recommended single malt whiskies. While you eat, the Beijing Scottish Society will be entertaining you with live scottish music, scottish dancing and enchanting tales of scottish culture.

This will be one of the premium events in Tianjin this year and availability is limited to only 40 tickets. Please contact myself or the Single Malt club for more information and bookings.

The Whisky Selection

Report

Due to afternoon rain, the dinner moved from the garden to the main ballroom. It proved to be a spectacular move as the Ritz Carlton ballroom and foyer are truly spectacular.

As guests arrived for pre-dinner drinks as provided by Moa, everybody was presented with a genuine Scottish hat or scarf given by Kang Kang Sullai Korean Restaurant, then encouraged to get a celtic design painted on their arn before having their professional photo taken in the beautiful halls of the Ritz Carlton.

The Guest Book (pictured above) was also available for those brave enough to sign with our club's gorgeous feather quill pen while people were waiting for the dinner to start.

With regular musical prompting by George Tian, our bagpiper for the evening, guests eventually made their way into the main ballroom for dinner.

The evening's dinner was spectacular with each dish being paired with the relevant whisky. Of particular note was the haggis, with our Scottish contingent proclaiming it the best haggis they had ever tasted, and the slow 10 hour cooked beef which melted in the mouth. Many thanks to the Executive Chef Ornato Antunes for his splendid effort.

The whisky itself was of course amazing, but also provided in amazing quantities. It was our aim that nobody felt they didn't have enough whisky by the end of the night, and we met that expectation in spades. As the evening progressed, our guest speaker Ray Husthwaite waxed lyrical about his home in Islay, as well as providing tasting notes and insights into each whisky as they were brought out.

To make life easier for our Chinese Speaking guests, each speech was translated into our beautifully printed guide book as a momento for the evening.

In between the courses Janice Stewart-Yates managed to encourage almost everybody onto the dance floor to try their hand at the Gay Gordon and the Canadian Barn Dance.

To cap off the wonderful evening, Quark Finance provided some quality cigars as the rain eased and we were able to move out into the garden to finish the evening. The final guests of the evening were smoking cigars and drinking Lagavulin until 3am in the morning.

Many thanks to all our guests, our sponsors, the Beijing Scottish Society (Janice, Ray, Oliver, George, Wei), Adam Gottschalk & Victoria our MCs, and the Ritz Carlton who made all of this possible. It was truly an unforgettable night.