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Best whisky bottles to buy this October

True whisky weather is here. Rain has returned. The sky comes grey, two ways: bright grey and gloomy grey. The wind slips under the shawls of skin and whistles against the bones. The light clothes are gone; everything in the wardrobe must now either be warming or waterproof, and preferably both.

Not much fun if you live for sun, but just the excuse to pour out something soft on a Sunday afternoon. Whisky has a lived-in reputation as a warming drink, which is mostly fair for the high-street malts and certainly feels true now, when comforting, easy-drinking sherried malts are the thing – it seems like the popularity of perplexingly heavily-peated bottles is on the wane.

No-one sane, so far as I can tell, says they drink whisky “seasonally”, but there’s no harm in trying different things at different times: keep the younger Speysides for spring, skip over the US for ryes and bourbons when the summer is dry and baking, and slowly shift into the highlands and islands as the cold comes. This month might feel like one for the comforting drinks, but keep trying new things or you’ll be bored of them by Christmas, when you really want the warming ones.

In that thread, this month is more heavily weighted to new things than normal, but there’s an old release to rediscover too. As I wrote in September, I’m no whisky investor – by necessity of the column, I open and drink these bottles, which for some reason puts off collectors – but the Macallan Editions have typically done well; when I put away the No. 2, it was retailing at £75. Now they sell for around £400. More fool me but still, drinking is more fun than hoarding, so here’s my glass raised. As ever, cheers.

Dartmoor Whisky Ex-Bordeaux Single Malt

When the press release came through about Dartmoor whisky, which is the first distillery producing in Devon, one name took me by surprise – that of Frank McHardy. McHardy has lived a life in whisky, working first at Invergordon, then Tamanvulin and Bruichladdich, before settling at Campbeltown’s Springbank in 1977, remaining their until he retired in 2014 (albeit with a decade as Bushmill’s that crossed from the mid 80s to the mid 90s). It’s a testament to either Dartmoor’s marketing nouse or to their good intentions that he’s involved.

Being a first means there’s a novelty to what Dartmoor are doing – there’s no reputation to live up to, no distillery character to fit in with. The range has three first cask releases: sherry (£159.50), Bordeaux (£139.50) and bourbon (£139.50), but I tried the cheaper standard ex-Bordeaux release at just under £60. Whisky made using red wine casks is always interesting: that pale gold colour gets a pink tinge – a touch of the sunsets – while the flavour always gets a fresh edge of red berry fruit. That’s true here: this is a young whisky, where the flavour rushes all at once; you get the faint smell of old tobacco, like if you opened a drawer in a desk at your grandparent’s house, and something biscuity too. There’s a lemon freshness though, on top of that. To drink, you might taste those red berries but also cherries, though the fresh burn of whisky dominates, which softens into something fudgy at the end. It’s just three years old, the legal minimum, and in parts it shows; you feel like it’s almost there, needing just a little more depth. But, on the other hand, it’s fun to try something new and it’s still very pleasant (although ice, for instance, completely tears it in two). Add a drop of water to calm down the spikiness that comes with it being so green, and you’ve something to slowly savour. Good things in Dartmoor’s future, I’d wager.

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£59.50 | Dartmoor Whisky Distillery

Macallan Edition No.6

A special one, this. The sixth and final bottle to come in the Macallan Edition range, No. 6 marks the conclusion of a series that began back in 2016 and quickly caught on with collectors and casual drinkers alike. I’m fond of Macallan, having happy memories of driving up to the distillery. It looks over the River Spey – who’s water is said to be in half of Scotland’s whisky – and it’s the river that has inspired this release. It’s beautiful up there, to walk along the riverbank on the loose rocks, the water always icy and sometimes flashing a flinty silver with salmon. I can imagine drinking it up there, hipflask in the pocket.

Matured in five different sherry casks, there’s the expected sherry solace of toffee and dark chocolate chocolate and nutmeg, all those welcome winter flavours. This is a rich, hearty drink: it smells of hazelnuts and cinnamon, with a little fruit in there too – think plums, maybe. It tastes a bit spicy, and it’s the warming type – the whisky you’d want after a long day out in the cold, the whisky to drink as you’re drying off, the room smelling of wet waxed jackets and sopping grass stuck on the bottom of boots. It’s an atmosphere dram – there’s lots of flavour here, but you’re opening it for a feeling. Those with a mind for collecting bottles would do well to buy two; one to crack open and one to keep. Having a bottle without getting a taste would be too much of a shame.

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£94.95 | The Whisky Exchange

Glenlivet Caribbean Reserve

Despite being just about as close to a household name as single malts get, the Glenlivet rarely pops up on this page, but this one deserves a little attention as it’s not some airport-only release or some oddball only found online.

The Caribbean Reserve has been popping up at supermarkets – Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and the Co-op – so is a readily available bottle for those looking to experiment on a whim while doing the weekly shop. This is a drink for those still clinging to the last of the summer: this no-age, 40 per cent ABV release has been finished in ex-rum casks from Jamaica, which first started to be fashionable in Scotch circles a couple of years ago. The result here isn’t revolutionary, but it’s good for the price (decent rum finishes tend to get pricey, quickly). You get a great waft of alcohol with a sniff, which may be the rum influence, as well as something fresh and sugary, like apple juice and bananas. But the good side of rum comes in the taste: it’s all honey and spice, a little ginger, cinnamon and some cloves, and something bright and arresting that’s almost minty. You could stretch and say there was mango in here, but that’s trying: this isn’t some hugely complex dram for deep conversations. Instead, it’s fresh and fun and light and probably built for cocktails, or at least a swig of soda, poured over ice with a slice of orange to match the box. After middling first impressions, I warmed to this one, and liked it in a whisky sour, too. I’ll keep the rest of the bottle to share with friends curious about new things.

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£36 | Tesco

Ballantine’s 7 Bourbon Finish

Ballentine’s has long been an easy-going drink, but for years barely changed – you drank Ballantine’s Finest, the familiar medicine-brown bottle with its cream label, or not at all.

Over the last decade or so that’s changed with the 17-year-old (wonderful stuff), and the 21, both now hard to find, as well as the 30-year-old, still going strong. But the move towards premium blends has also been derailed by experiments; take the lime-infused ‘Brasil’, or the exotic fruits in the ‘Passion’, both releases best forgotten. At times it’s looked from the outside as though the brand is confused by what it wants to be and which direction it’s heading in. This new release isn’t entirely convincing – it looks as though they’re hoping to bridge the gap between American and Scotch whisky – but at least they’re concentrating on being whisky again, not some ill-advised rival to Southern Comfort.

This new bottle is aged for seven years before splashing about in a “bourbon cask”. To avoid excess nerdiness, I’ll assume this means new-fill casks, as scotch is often aged in ex-bourbon casks anyway, and they don’t specify, but it could just be two ex-bourbon casks used. Whatever it is, this stuff gets a little of that bourbon-sharp brightness, as well as a touch of sweetness that marks a lot of stuff from the US. It smells of wood and oil, of vanilla, and it’s sweet, which carries over mostly into the taste. The bourbon touch has added a little peppery spiciness on first taste, but then that dies and there’s a rush of that vanilla flavour, with something like burnt sugar and honey in there, and then all the oak wood comes through. Ballantine’s suggest it’s best mixed up in an Old Fashioned and they’re not wrong, but it stands up well enough on its own, though neat I’d take it over ice to soften the sugar. All in all, decent, and worth trying at the price.

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£28 | Ballantines

Teaninich 1999, 17 Year Old, 2017 Special Release

The Whisky Exchange have long had a “Malt of the Month” which, although I’m sometimes sceptical of (the cynic in me assumes they’re trying to shift slow-sellers), tends to actually be reliably well considered; rarely have I seen a duff choice and the pick often comes with a deal to boot – as here, where they’ve knocked £100 off. While you may not have heard of Teaninich, you’ve likely tasted it; Diageo, who own the longstanding distillery, use the place to pump out malt for mixing in their biggest brands, including Johnnie Walker, Vat 69 and Haig Club.

Though Diageo have released Teaninich single malts in their Flora and Fauna series and That Boutique-y Whisky Company have bought casks for their bottlings, official releases are rare. Unlike the other bottles here, which are drunk thoroughly and enthusiastically at home, with ice, water, mixed in a drink and the rest, I’ve only tried a large measure of this with a bartender friend who insisted I should. This Highlander is punchy, but with an apple-and-melon sweetness that lingers nicely, and runs into caramel flavours. I’d have liked to have more time with this one but just remember thinking; this is a serious drink. And now, given the money off, not quite so far out of reach.

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£165 | The Whisky Exchange

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