Best Scotch whisky under £100 – and one alternative

Robert Burns may have known the downside to drink when he wrote on John Syme’s goblet “There’s death in the cup – sae beware!”, but he knew the draw of it too, following his alarming opening with an honest admission: “But wha can avoid the fell snare? The man and his wine's sae bewitching!”

It seems only right, then, to pay tribute to Scotland’s greatest poet by raising a measure in his honour. The tie between whisky and Burns goes beyond a shared homeland; he wrote of it often, most famously in Tam O’Shanter, where he praised the bravening effects of ‘John Barleycorn’, and in Scotch Drink, where he named it as his muse.

Whether you’re toasting the Address to the Haggis or wailing along to Donald, Where’s Your Trousers? (Spotify it), here’s our pick of the drams that’ll keep you dancing, whether you're doing a ceilidh or not.

Port Charlotte 10-year-old Scotch Whisky

On Scotland’s west coast is the Hebrides, and it’s said their Queen is Islay. The island’s known for its whisky, which is a clearer picture of the place than any postcard. Swirling inside most bottles here are flavours of peat and smoke and salt from the sea, but the Bruichladdich boys once differed from their neighbours – Ardbeg, Lagavulin and Laphroaig – for keeping their stuff unpeated. Then they put together a team for their Port Charlotte experiments, named for a pretty village of white-washed houses that stare out over the water, with an aim to bottle the quintessential Islay dram.

With their flagship 10-year-old, they’ve done it. Smoke? It’s like sitting beside the open fire in the corner of a cosy pub. Peat? Enough to almost chew it. But whereas some peaty single malts leave your mouth feeling slight charred, there’s enough seaweed and brisk air in this to level things out; drinking this excellent release feels like settling at the bar after a long walk out on the beach. It tastes similar too; sea air but sweeter, a little honey and vanilla, with some oak smoke in there. It’s 50 per cent ABV, but the alcohol sits well in the drink, softened, probably, because of its time in wine casks at the end.

£47 | Buy it now

Macallan Sherry Oak 12-year-old Scotch Whisky

Whatever it was that pushed Macallan to run their 1824 series – the Gold, Amber, Sienna and Ruby editions – it certainly seems putting these bottles quietly away and returning to age statements is for the best. Certainly, a number shouldn’t signify anything particularly, but the Macallan 12 means something; those with a long memory, or good friends with old collections, will know the Macallan 12s of the mid 90s were faintly heavenly.

They’ve had this back for a couple of years, aged in sherry wood as it should be, and recently seem to have found a consistency that’s admirable. The drink tastes as it looks, standing upright and patrician in its bottle; it is utterly elegant, tasting just the way a very good, comforting Speyside should.

It smells of dried fruit, sultanas and raisins, but the sherry is in there from the off, coming across like Calvados. To taste, it’s nicely sweet, and goes down easily, with lots of marmalade and oak flavours. It is, perhaps, not the most complex drink in the world, but it’s not bottled to be – it’s bottled to drink every now and then with a friend, to catch up over, to enjoy without having to think about it. It's bottled to be reliable. A touch pricey, but very lovely.

£68 | Buy it now

Highland Park Dragon Legend Scotch Whisky

Let’s skip swiftly over the name; the recent Game of Thrones whiskies put out by Diageo were bad enough (gentlemen, ladies, please: control your marketing department), but this sounds as if it were dreamt up for boys with board games in the basement. And still – still! – it makes this list as it’s frankly delicious and a bargain to boot.

Highland Park, so called as it’s the most northerly distillery in Scotland, typically produces rich, indulgent drams, all cinnamon and coffee. Here, they’ve gone smokier than normal, with something which tastes like fruitcake and smells like cut wood. It’s got a little citrus in there, lemon peel, lots of earthy notes too, and just the right level of peat. At 43.1 per cent ABV, the alcohol is quite upfront, but best left like that – adding water dulls things. The finish is light, though the sweetness lasts. Perfect for a long, lingering drink late in the evening.

£40 | Buy it now

That Boutique-y Whisky Company Bunnahabhain 11-Year-Old Scotch Whisky

That Boutique-y Whisky Company are independent bottlers, rather than distillers themselves, and they certainly have a nose for the good stuff. This is a Bunnahabhain, from Islay, limited to 712 bottles, and is another of those whiskies that would be perfect out on the shoreline, wrapped up in a Barbour, nice and tired from a long stroll.

It smells like the sea on rocks, with a little orange and hazlenut there too, but it opens into a fierce warmth that might seem like smoke but really is red hot chili peppers. There’s dark chocolate in there, cloves too; this is drink to warm up winter. It’s lovely, lively, and comes with quite a hit at 49.5 per cent ABV. The packaging matters, too; so much of whisky is in the ceremony, in taking out a lovely bottle and sharing it around. That’s where Boutique-y do so well: their labels are fun, they prompt a little conversation, and they make this a beautiful, distinctive gift. This one shows the distillery; look closely, especially at the water.

£74 | Buy it now

AnCnoc 18-year-old Scotch Whisky

Proof, if it were needed, that smoke isn’t flavour. This is really quite gorgeous; more than that, it’s priced the way whisky used to be before the market went AWOL. An 18-year-old for somewhere around £75 now represents fairly excellent value for money; age isn’t everything, but it is, at least, a yardstick of what to expect. This non-chill filtered Highland whisky offers gentle sweetness, a gorgeous nose and lots of freshness.

The best thing to do with this AnCnoc – that’s an-knock, by the way – is let it sit in the glass before tucking in. “A year in the cask, a minute in the glass” has rarely been as true as it is here, and something about this charmingly complex dram starts to unfurl as the air skims its surface. To start, there’s butterscotch, orange peel, a certain nuttiness that’s also carrying a fruity sweetness. Take a sip and out comes something reminiscent of Jamacian ginger cake, with plenty of pepper and that nuttiness from the smell. This comes from its final ageing in Oloroso sherry casks: you taste what they’ve done, but it doesn’t overpower. It is smooth as anything, full of body, nicely fruity and plenty rich. To go back to the beginning – there’s no smoke, but no smoke needed.

£74 | Buy it now

Glen Moray Peated Scotch Whisky

Speyside, where this is from, isn’t known for its peated whiskies, so this is an unusual offering from Glen Moray. Moray often make these best-of lists as they price so competitively; at around the mid-£20s, and so, in supermarkets, this offers terrific value for money. It’s not an especially subtle drink, with the smoke billowing through it from the off, but there’s enough sweetness in there to keep things pleasingly drinkable. If neat scotch all evening feels like a bit much, mix this into a cocktail – it would be beautiful in a Pencillin (scotch, lemon, honey, ginger), giving a great big kick of peat. Not so good alone on ice, though.

£27 | Buy it now

And the alternative... Cotswold Single Malt

For something different this Burns Night, don’t do a single malt Scotch at all. Blasphemous, perhaps, but if you’re not Scottish, where’s the harm? This, which holds the (perhaps unsurprising) distinction of being the first whisky distilled in the Cotswolds, has a beautiful colour to it, a rich amber that’s all natural and lifted from the red wine barrels it’s finished in. Though the idea seems like a novelty, if not heresy – English Scotch?! – it’s won plaudits across the industry, with Jim Murray scoring it 95 points out of a hundred in his most recent Whisky Bible.

It deserves every mark: from the off, it is full of honey, and the red wine notes are there too, but to taste it’s quickly followed by some nuttiness, some spice, and sweetness that’s full of sugary citrus that seems to fade into something comforting, like treacle. If this makes it sound soporific, it’s not; a young whisky, it’s actually very lively. A surprise, and a treat.

£45 | Buy it now