The best whiskey gifts

Whisk(e)y is more-or-less a failsafe gift – and unlike a jumper, you're all but guaranteed it'll see the light of day a few times.

The list below is full of ideal gifts: some are simply delicious, others make a statement and all of them are perfect for sharing.

Anyone who loves whisky is probably going to be a little nerdy about it too, no matter what they say, and whisky is sold on its stories. All of our picks have something worth chatting about.

The Scotch

Macallan Limited Edition No 3

‘Never judge a book by it’s cover’ never made much sense to me; who wouldn’t choose the better looking edition? Whisky is about what it tastes like, and sure it’s shallow to go on looks, but what a bottle: the striking yellow label against that Macallan amber looks like a million dollars for £80. There’s no age statement, which might be red flag for those who’ve drunk the highs and lows of Macallan’s experiments, but this time it doesn’t make a difference. It’s a beautiful dram, old world elegant, smelling of ginger and cinnamon and (sorry, but it’s true) vanilla. It's like liquid Christmas cake without all the raisins. Completely gorgeous.

£78, Buy It Now

Lagavulin Distillers Edition Double Matured

This may well be the best bottle on the list: it is stunningly good and while the standard 16-year-old Lagavulin is lovely, this is arguably a cut above and, as a gift, certainly feels a little more special. It doesn’t suffer from being too smokey and the peat isn’t overpowering. It’s all dark chocolate and raisins to taste, a tiny hint of almonds, a bit of coffee: in other words, rich and gorgeous and ideal to drink with friends. While it has everything going for it as a nightcap whisky, it’s good enough you’ll probably stay up for a few.

£68, Buy It Now

Benromach: 2009 Single Malt

One for smoke lovers. It smells intensely, all at once of long wet walks out in the woods and nights curled up in front of the fire. It comes with a kick, bottled at 61 ABV, so it can stand to be cut with a little water (make it just a little, though; too much really drowns this one and ice doesn't suit it). It’s just eight years old, but tastes much older. Though there are just a couple of hundred bottles floating about, get one if you can, or maybe two: it’s perfect as a gift, a real statement that's sure to surprise (and impress!). Mind you, once you’ve tasted this stuff, you likely won't want to give it away.

£60, Buy It Now

Glenfiddich Winter Storm

You approach this one sceptically: there’s the price (...it’s a lot), and er, the name, which I can only assume was thought up by the guy on the team who plays Call of Duty every break. They talk about tasting notes of lychee and Turkish delight, which further convinces me this entire bottle, bright white ceramic bottle and all, is a PR stunt, but the whisky really is quite stunning. A 21-year-old malt aged for six months, it's unsurprisingly sweet, but there’s some smoke in there too and a little fruit, though I don’t buy the lychee. Despite the name, don’t drink it with ice; this one is best without, kept as it is or better yet, with a little water to cut the alcohol kick. Alternatively, if you are looking for another statement gift, try Johnnie Walker Blue Label, which remains as good as ever.

£199, Buy It Now

Speyburn 15-year-old

Bottles of stuff like this are best kept out of sight at parties: it’s exactly the sort of easy drinking Scotch that tends to have even non-whisky lovers asking for just a wee drop more. “Easy drinking” – that most suspicious of modifiers – doesn’t, in this instance, translate to flavourless stuff. It smells pleasantly of dark chocolate and raisins, and there’s an initial bite of spice on first sip. It’s nicely creamy, and very Christmassy, full of orange and toffee. It’s rich enough that it does for that last drink at the end of evening, but not so overpowering that it’s too much to enjoy after everything else.​

£59, Buy It Now

Glen Moray 15-year-old

As always, Glen Moray offers a bargain and this 15-year-old is excellent for around £44 a bottle. It comes from their Elgin Heritage range – a nice little shout out for a beautiful town with the most gorgeous, ruined cathedral – and is aged in sherry and American oak casks. The result is a remarkably smooth drink, one with plenty of body but none of that single malt punch that can make you screw your face up. It smells like caramel and tastes like childhood treats, all toffee and fudge. It’s beautifully rich, but a little sweet too, and it has a finish to savour.

£44, Buy It Now

Naked Grouse

At around £20 a bottle, this blended malt is a bargain. You can taste what’s gone into it, Highland Park and Macallan, so it’s not short on big, bright flavours. While it can be a touch astringent, there’s enough sherry, sultana and spice in it to smooth off the edges. With all of that, it easily stands up to mixers, and is the right price to be a mixing whisky, but it’s probably too good for that. Lovely stuff.

£20, Buy It Now

The bourbons and ryes

Bulleit No 10

This 10-year-old from Bulleit is made for filling glasses full of ice up to the brim; it’s a bourbon to have on its own, rather than waste with a mixer. The ageing hasn’t mellowed Bulleit’s distinctive, fiery flavour – there’s a reason this stuff carries the moniker “Frontier whisky”. There’s plenty of wood in this one, and while there are other excellent bourbons in this price range that go a little deeper – the Four Roses Single Barrel, for instance – the straightforward nature of this Bulleit is its strength: it delivers with every sip.

£40, Buy It Now

Wild Turkey Rare Breed

This Wild Turkey offers something entirely different. Though it comes in at 56.4 ABV – something you mightn’t realise until you’ve had a couple – it’s decidedly smooth and mellow, and while it’s got a kick of spice, it’s nicely sweet, tasting of fruitcake and honey. There’s caramel and cinnamon in there too, but it’s not sticky or oily, so it’s practically custom bottled for sipping. It looks good, too; all in all, everything about this punches way above its price point.

£45, Buy It Now

Lot 40 Rye

This is probably the best rye whisky out there for the money; it is, in fact, one my favourite rye whiskies out there for any money. This blend mightn’t be quite and full and rich as previous blends, which are legendary in rye-loving circles, but it’s still delicious. It’s sweet, a little spicy, full of oak and pepper. Pour it out over some ice, take a sip and let it do its thing.

£38, Buy It Now

Jack Daniels Tennessee Straight Rye

Last year’s single batch rye was a lovely surprise from Jack Daniels, and they’d done interesting things with their rested rye and unaged rye, so there were questions about whether they could make it work en mass, and cheaper. Well… they have. It’s not so distinctively, er, ‘Jack’ as Old No 7, which is a good thing; it’s freed them up to make a dry, peppery, chocolately rye that’s less spicy than smooth, with its own individual profile. Nice on its own, much better mixed up into a sazerac, boulevardier or Manhattan.

£25, Buy It Now

The rest

Suntory Yamazaki 12-year-old

I can’t pretend this offers particularly tremendous value at just about £100 a bottle most places, but I can tell you that, with friends, the bottle seemed to disappear almost at once. Its long-standing, first rate reputation is well deserved: it is tremendously soft, fresh and light, the opening burst of pepper quickly fading into orange and cinnamon touches, which finishes off with something fresh at the end, like a little summer fruit. It intriguing, somehow distinctly Japanese, and delicious.

£95, Buy It Now

Liverpool Whisky 12-year-old

There’s a caveat with this one, which is that at the best part of £50, it is overpriced. It is decent but not remarkable, with simple but tasty vanilla and honey flavours. That said, the folks behind it – famous for the terrific Liverpool Gin – know what they’re doing and that it’s triple-distilled and not chill-filtered will please the purists. Anyway, the real reason to buy this is because it’s an oddity: it’s whisky, from Liverpool, which is rare – ideal as something different to give.

£46, Buy It Now

Isfjord No 2

Got a nerdy whisky loving mate? Put a bottle of this on their shelf – no-one has Danish whisky at home. The stuff in this bottle is actually remarkably good, surprisingly rich, nicely sweet in a caramel and apple sort of way, with the tiniest bit of peat in there too. The real reason to get a bottle of this stuff, though, is the story: it’s the world’s first whisky made from iceberg water, which comes from the ice fjord in western Greenland. Why should you care? Well, besides the fact it’s very, very pure tasting, the ice can be up to 180,000 years old. That’s something to chat about over a dram, surely?

£73, Buy It Now