Please join us in congratulating our very own Olaf Meier on his induction as a Keeper of the Quaich, in recognition of his outstanding commitment to the Scotch whisky industry. Olaf received his honour at last night’s Keeper’s Banquet ceremony at Blair Castle in the Scottish Highlands.
Olaf fell in love with The Scotch Malt Whisky Society on his first visit to Scotland in the summer of 1983 – the year the Society was founded. He sampled a 21-year-old bottling from the Campbeltown distillery we bottle under the code 27. It was his first ever whisky, and a life-long love affair with both Scotch and the SMWS was born.
Olaf joined in May 1992, when international membership of the Society was still difficult to obtain – but he managed to make it happen!He went on to work as Whisky Sales Manager at the Society from December 2003 – June 2004, when he also hosted his first tasting for the SMWS.
He joined the SMWS Tasting Panel as a member in December 2003 and has been a Tasting Panel chair since June 2012. He has now participated in more than 600 Panels and chaired more than 400.
In August 2007, Olaf was officially appointed as an SMWS ambassador and has subsequently hosted more than 1.500 tastings in Edinburgh, across Scotland, England, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Austria, Germany and China – with groups ranging from one person to 800!
Olaf is also a well-known face with Society members for his contribution to many virtual tastings, blogger tastings and Twitter tastings, and has helped to train many new SMWS ambassadors over the years.
Here’s to Keeper of the Quaich Olaf, and to many more years together with the SMWS!
You can find out more about Olaf’s 20 years representing the Society in our Whisky Talk podcast and read about his whisky journey in Unfiltered issue 93