Best Scottish whiskies from the five Scotch whisky regions (2024)

There is never a time not to sip a fine whisky (well, besides bobsleighing and high-speed police chases perhaps). However, when the temperature drops, this warming, bolstering tipple really comes into its own. And any leftover bottles will be essential for Burns Night.

We know the Japanese, Americans, Irish, even Londoners, make incredible whiskies, but we are concentrating on the Scots, the true masters of the art (cue a barrel-load of indignant emails from Osaka and Lynchburg).

Another beast we are going to slay is the common misconception that “single malts” (made with barley) are always better than “blended” or other grain varieties. Single malts tend to be awesome, but we’ve found some cracking alternatives too.

You might also need a quick 101 on the five Scotch whisky regions and their flavour characteristics.

While we’re talking about tasting notes, don’t be dismayed when the bottle says something wildly esoteric like “ripe cherries, charred oak and tarmac” (they have said that) and you can’t discern any of it. Most people can’t, and it might evoke something even more fantastic to you instead – Cleopatra’s handbag, perhaps.

So whether you’re about to sneak a gentle early-afternoon snifter or you want to climb up a chimney of sooty spirit on New Year’s Eve, we’ve got the perfect dram for you. And if you’re just after a last-minute present, we’ve even suggested the perfect character profile for who to gift each whisky to.

Slàinte mhath!

Mortlach

Best for: potent single malt magic

Produced in Dufftown - just north of the Cairngorms - since 1823, there’s nothing duff about Mortlach’s meaty alchemy. In fact, so rambunctious is their whisky compared with the mellower styles of the Speyside region, it’s earned the nickname the Beast of Dufftown.

The process of making this is also cloaked in mythic bewilderment – for starters, it’s distilled 2.81 times through six uniquely shaped stills (don’t ask). Mortlach says this single malt, which pours like a golden liquid cornfield on a dazzling September morn, is “intensely vanilla-sweet with a savoury finish, spicy-dry oak and chilli”.

We also picked up ripples of toasty, warming sherry and a pungent waft of ripe orchard fruits. Perhaps even a subtle evocation of pagan rituals in the glen. It’s a wonderful shapeshift of flavours.

Tamdhu

Best for: strength and power

Still waters run deep… and if it’s pure, rich-copper fire water, even better. This batch-strength (how it comes out of the cask, 57 per cent in this case) Speyside single malt delivers all the sweet intensity you could desire from a strong, silent type.

It’s aged in hand-selected Oloroso sherry casks to give it oddles of brooding aromas and taste. Tamdhu tells us to look out for summer berry pudding with crème anglaise and cinnamon spice swells. We found resinous oak, marmalade and something akin to flaming meteor (honestly), while the super-powerful finish was loaded with burnt toffee. It also comes in a gift pack with a lovely Victorian-style “nosing” glass. But who to give this to? For someone spirited, vivid yet beautifully measured.

Croftengea

Best for: brooding depth

From the Loch Lomond Distillery comes this deep golden, peated Highland single malt. For a dram that doesn’t trumpet itself with a florid fanfare, it’s a heady display of complexity. The scent is a double-nostriled heathery wallop and the widescreen assault on the senses doesn’t let up. They tell you it’s butter mints, burning leaves, earthy smoke and chocolate limes. We certainly got a full-on cascade of bonfires and lovely medicinal sweetness, which lingered and lingered long after the glass was drained. We would venture even a tinge of white-hot anvil maybe. This is deep and headstrong.

Arbikie

Best for: field to bottle fans

Four generations of the Stirling family have been farming the Arbikie Estate on the east coast of Scotland and distilling originally began there in, you’ve guessed it, 1794.

Everything that goes into this glowing copper spirit comes from the estate, from the water filtering through the Angus hills to the grain planted in the red sandstone soil. Heck, they actually tell you the name of the field in which it grew. This is also something of a revival of tradition, being the first Scottish rye whisky for more than 100 years.

Lo and behold, the first thing that hit us with this was a beautifully grainy, sea-salty, “farmy” scent on the nose. On the palate, says Arbikie, is cinnamon, sweet muscovado and fresh honey. Cedar and a tingle of toasted orange also featured for us, as well as a hefty wedge of boozy Christmas cake – perhaps even the tree itself. It’s an eminently sippable true homestead tipple.

The Singleton of Glen Ord

Best for: the ultimate treat

There are great whiskies and then there are extraordinary whiskies. If you’ve scooped a bumper bonus, or the 3.20 at Catterick just came good for you, read on. Hell, read on anyway.

It all began with an already splendid 12-year-old whisky. Since then master blender Maureen Robinson has nurtured this for another 27 years in casks which had held port wine, red wine, Pedro Ximénez and Oloroso wines. She then married these whiskies in Bordeaux casks. Was her labour of love worth it? One niff of the darkly amber single malt, with its densely layered fragrance (fresh European leather stood out for us), and you know it’s something special.

On the taste buds, they say: clove-studded fruits, muscovado crumble and salted plums. We also got waves of creamy, caramelised spice and an incredibly long finish, like an ancient saga that keeps on giving.

Fancy just a wee sip? Head to Michelin-starred Hide on Piccadilly, where they serve it by the dram.

Compass Box

Best for: smoky alchemical sophistication

Hold on to your deerstalkers you purists, giddy heresy cometh this way. Started by John Glaser, an American living in London, Compass Box has been cleverly pushing the boundaries of blended whisky for the past two decades, and No Name, No 3 is the delirious climax of their peaty trilogy. They’ve whipped up something rather magical by combining a seaweedy, barbecue single malt from Laphroaig Distillery and a tropical-tinged malt whisky from Bowmore Distillery. They say: seashells and sage; pineapple and allspice; smoke that moves in oily waves. Yes, we were getting all the spices too, and then some - plus, might we add, undertones of a velvet opium den. This is exceptionally smooth, easy-drinking and moreish for such a complex flavour odyssey.

Octomore

Best for: smoke of the gods

When the world of whisky needs smoke, all vessels point towards Islay. And when the gods demand the smoothest, most pungent velvet smoke known to godkind, they swoop down on the Bruichladdich Distillery and its super heavy-peated Octomore single malts, which are aged for five years in bourbon casks. Stick your nose in after pouring for a delicate floral bonfire. Wait a few minutes and it turns to a conflagration of fiery aromas.

Among many notes, they tell us we will taste: fired oak chips, nutty nougat and straw. We also got damp smoke and a medley of sweet and savoury spiciness. Maybe a flaming Viking longboat adrift on the brine too. What we also loved was that piquant medicinal twinge of the nose hairs when taking that first sip – delightfully thrilling. Pour a couple of horns of this on Boxing Day and watch your guests melt to putty in your hands…

Douglas Laing & Co

Best for: mice that roar

“Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim’rous beastie…” Don’t be fooled by Scottish Bard Robert Burns’ glorious words, as this blended Highland malt is a full-throated monster. Finished in Spanish sherry casks that would leave a wee mouse utterly legless, this is bursting with, well… sherry.

They say of this deep, rusty-gold nectar: rich blackberries, chocolate ginger biscuits and chewy caramel. We also got sherried treacle and even a delicious inkling of waxy sideboard. It has a marvellous, slow-burning, sizzling finish too.

The Macallan

Best for: whisky newcomers

One of the world’s leading single malt whiskies, The Macallan combines Spanish and American influences with the traditional methods and craftsmanship used in Scotland for a single malt that’s fully rounded and perfectly balanced - something that they’ve been doing for 200 years.

Known for exceptional oak casks which are sourced, crafted, toasted and seasoned under the watchful eye of The Macallan Master of Wood, each batch takes 100 per cent of its colour from the wood, so can be slightly different from bottle to bottle, not to mention a great deal of nuanced flavour.

Whiskey Works

Best for: flavour polymaths

Got a thirst for something long-lost or a little leftfield? Head to Whisky Works, which offers one-off releases of modern experiments and rare vintages from closed distilleries. We expected something called a Glaswegian to be somewhat forthright and robust, but this is mellow, light and softly tantalising, from the deep-apricot colour to its citrusy buttercup nose.

We picked up notes of caramelised crème brûlée, butterscotch and tropical fruit, and that’s exactly what the bottle told us we would get (we didn’t check until after tasting). But this was also a revelation, evoking wave after wave of sweet sensations, from buttery honey and toasted marshmallow to nougat and clotted cream. We like to think it finished on the taste of sunrise over Glencoe.

Glengoyne

Best for: taking it easy

Tucked away in the Highlands just north of Glasgow are the slowest stills in Scotland. Don’t hurry, be happy - that’s been the Glengoyne way since 1833. And the proof is in the pudding (there are at least three meanings there, if you care to tax your mind) with this serene, deep amber-toned single malt.

Aged for more than two decades in 100 per cent sherry casks, in their words you’ll taste: “Christmas cake, honey, red apples, spicy strudel, dried fruits and a cinnamon hit.” The first two struck us right on the nose, while the others indeed arrived on the palate. It’s a rare thing to experience exactly what it says on the bottle. We also picked up lashings of brandy butter and pudding at the best Christmas dinner ever.

Compared with most full-bodied whiskies, this is a real easy sipper - perfect for the whole family (almost). Although there’s one person we’d gift this to more than anyone: Santa himself.