Country clubs have plenty of activities to offer, such as golf, fine dining, tennis, and swimming. But how many can claim to have their very own whisky club? Palm Desert, California’s The Lakes Country Club certainly can do so.

The Lakes Spirit Society is this country club’s attraction for whisky drinkers. The society's meetings take place monthly from November to April on the grounds, with Palm Desert’s scorching temperatures compelling the group to adjourn for the hot months.

First christened as The Lakes Whisky Society, this group was founded by Mark Ovitz in 2016. Mark, who still serves as acting president, founded the society as a practical solution to his spirits-buying habits. “I woke up one day and I thought ‘Wow, I’m buying a lot of [whisky]. Wouldn’t it be fun if I could get a group together, we all chip in, and buy the spirits to taste together?’ that way I wouldn’t have to buy all the bottles myself,” he says. “It was truly a selfish endeavor,” he jokes. After gaining permission from the country club, Mark rounded up 25 other country club residents and set things in motion.

From the start, club meetings have always centered around both history and tastings. Each month, a different style of whisky is showcased, and Mark curates a flight of four or five expressions of the style. Before pouring, he takes the society through a presentation on the history of the whiskies in question. They're then served alongside food, provided courtesy of the Lakes Country Club’s head chef, to show some ideal pairings. The whiskies are chosen based on quality and availability—with widely available expressions taking precedence over harder-to-find ones. “[Members] should be able to buy what they drink if they like it,” says Mark. Club meetings end with raffles, prizes including bottles, society-branded merchandise, and one-year subscriptions to Whisky Advocate. And while there are no set membership dues per se, members of the club evenly split all costs associated with the meetings.

In 2021, the group rebranded itself as the Lakes Spirit Society, making the decision to include other spirits in its tasting rotation. The current slate is for four of the six yearly meetings to focus on whisky, with the remaining two being devoted to something else (rum, tequila, and gin have gone over well with society members). That same year the society purchased a barrel of bourbon from Denver, Colorado’s Laws Whiskey House, subsequently releasing it as a club-exclusive bottling for the members.

Mark says the mission is all about education and exposure. Of the 38 current members, 12 have been around from the beginning. Surprisingly, most started as casual drinkers with little interest in whisky and some free time to kill. Since joining the club, they’ve developed a genuine passion for spirits overall. “Even if they don’t drink gin, they’ll still come and taste it,” says Mark, using a recent gin tasting as a parallel to how newer members catch the whisky bug. “Maybe they plan to have someone over to their house who’s a gin drinker. Now they’ve at least tasted some gin, and can say, ‘Oh, I want to buy a bottle of that!’” With the club wrapping up its seventh season just a few months ago, it's looking forward to its eighth once the temperatures become cooler.

Club Insider: The Lakes Spirit Society

Location: Palm Desert, CA
Year Founded: 2016
Number of Members: 25-38
Membership: Exclusive to Lakes Country Club members
Website: No