Peated or unpeated? Sherry-cask matured, ex-bourbon cask aged or some combination of the two? The tweaks and variations that go into each bottle of Scotch are intimidating, especially for bourbon and rye whiskey drinkers who may not be accustomed to the price of a spirit that’s been aged for 18 years or more.
We recommend thinking of each bottle of Scotch as falling somewhere along two spectrums: from light to rich; delicate to smoky. From there, it’s easy to move along those two spectrums to find bottles you like. Novices should start by exploring the five Scotch-making regions of Scotland. Whatever your tastes, we've got a recommendation. These are the best bottles of Scotch whisky you can buy.
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Lagavulin 16 Year Read More -
Highland Park 18 Year Viking Pride Read More
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Deanston Virgin Oak Read More
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Bruichladdich Port Charlotte 10 Read More
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Kilkerran 12 Year Old Read More
How We Tested
Given that we are unabashed fans of Scotch, our team has spent the past several years tasting dozens, if not hundreds of bottles, both professionally and on our own personal time. Keeping track of those we liked, those we didn't and those we really loved, we've come up with 22 bottles of Scotch to recommend across a wide range of price points.
To learn more about our testing methodology and how we evaluate products, head here.
Best Overall Scotch
- Region: Islay
- ABV: 43%
- Tasting Notes: Peat smoke, salt, seaweed
Lagavulin 16 pleases crowds as the default good Scotch for a reason. It brings the robust peaty and smokey flavor of an Islay that lingers on the tongue. But unlike some Islay competitors, it does so in an intricately balanced way that doesn’t punch you in the face. It’s also smooth, caramelly and surprisingly easy to drink. Our tester found that adding a drop of water — as close to a single drop as you can get — helps bring out the flavor. In short, Ron Swanson and Brian Cox know their stuff.
Best Upgrade Scotch
- Region: Highland
- ABV: 43%
- Tasting Notes: Cherry, honey, cocoa
Highland Park Distillery is based on the largest of the wild, peat-filled islands off of the northern tip of Scotland. Its brightly peated whisky sits in sherry-seasoned European oak casks and ages in the extremely mild climate of the islands, for a gentle maturation that hits its stride at 18 years. Ignore the eccentric variants and go straight for Highland Park’s classic 18-year expression. This whisky has too many awards to name, including multiple nabs of Best Spirit in the World in Spirit Journal. Our tester describes a cornucopia of flavors in the 18-year-old, with a nose of cinnamon, honey, vanilla and smoke; cherry, honey, caramel, cocoa, baking spices, dried apricot, vanilla, light peat and sage all vying for attention on the palate and a finish that's long and smooth with dried fruit, light smoke and a honey/sherry-derived sweetness.
Best Budget Scotch
- Region: Highland
- ABV: 46.3%
- Tasting Notes: Orange, vanilla, caramel
For many Scotch lovers, Deanston has probably been off the radar. Not anymore, thanks to its win at the 2022 International Wine & Spirits Competition. It has a hefty 46.3 percent ABV, spending time in both ex-bourbon casks and new oak barrels. The biggest shocker of its win was Deanston Virgin Oak's price, clocking in with a retail price of around $30. Despite the lack of an age statement, Deanston Virgin Oak is a single-malt Scotch whisky with a price reserved for the less-than-amazing stuff.
Best Heavily Peated Scotch
- Region: Islay
- ABV: 50%
- Tasting Notes: Coconut, lemon honey, smoked oysters
While Bruichladdich’s main lineup consists of unpeated Scotches, Port Charlotte is aggressively peated in a way that stinks up the room when you pour a dram. Bottled relatively young after spending 10 years in a mixture of first- and second-fill bourbon casks, and second-fill French wine casks, it’s an aggressive Scotch. And the 10-year statement is a huge upgrade from what was originally a no-age-statement offering.
Best Lightly Peated Scotch
- Region: Campbeltown
- ABV: 46%
- Tasting Notes: Citrus, butterscotch, honeycomb
The great-great nephew of William Mitchell, the founder of Glengyle Distillery, reopened his family’s distillery in 2004. The distillery had remained quiet since 1925 when it closed following an economic downturn, and August 2016 was the first time Glengyle’s new flagship hit shelves. Kilkerran 12 has since proved a worthy torchbearer, with light peat working off bright sherry and bourbon casks.
Best Entry-Level Islay Scotch
- Region: Islay
- ABV: 43%
- Tasting Notes: Smoke, salt, sweet fruit
Caol Ila, Islay’s largest distillery, is a go-to brand for easy, entry-level Scotch from the region. (It famously produces much of the Scotch for blending in Johnnie Walker expressions.) Its 12-year-old expression has a delightful smoky sweetness, complemented by herbs and spices that show why this distillery has been around since 1846.
Best High-Proof Scotch
- Region: Islay
- ABV: 57.1%
- Tasting Notes: Pepper, espresso, dark fruit
Named for the famous whirlpool that lies to the north of Islay and winner of The World’s Best Single Malt in 2010 by the World Whiskies Awards, Corryvreckan is an intense, non-chill-filtered experience of peat and pepper aged in virgin French Limousin oak. If you’re looking for more fruitiness than spice, another fantastic Ardbeg is Uigeadail, which substitutes virgin French Limousin oak for ex-Sherry casks.
Best Scotch from an Independent Distillery
- Region: Campbeltown
- ABV: 54.2%
- Tasting Notes: Caramel, oak, spice
Springbank was founded in 1828 by Archibald Mitchell and today is owned by Mitchell’s great-great-great-grandson, making it one of the few independent distilleries trading blows with giants like Diageo. Beginning in 2010, the distillery has been releasing its 12-year expression, which blends juice aged in bourbon and sherry cask, semi-annually at cask strength. It’s well worth grabbing a bottle when they hit shelves.
Best Scotch from a Family-Owned Distillery
- Region: Speyside
- ABV: 43%
- Tasting Notes: Butterscotch, malt, sherry
Glenfarclas is one of the few remaining family-owned and operated distilleries in all of Scotland. Its core line-up is packaged without fuss or frills, making them a great value (Glenfarclas 12 is great for those on a budget) and the 17-year just gets it right. Matured exclusively in ex-Oloroso sherry casks, this has big butterscotch and sherried fruit, mix with a little peat smoke for an easy-drinking, reliable Scotch.
Best Speyside Single Malt Scotch
- Region: Speyside
- ABV: 43%
- Tasting Notes: Sherry, vanilla spice, honeyed fruit
The Balvenie Doublewood goes down smoothly with a spiciness that lingers on the tongue and a definite note of sherry from the final cask finishing. Our tester says it comes on strong with an alcohol flavor fresh from the just-opened bottle, but he found it offered a more balanced and sweeter note after sitting out and aerating for a bit, so take that for what it's worth.
Best Highland Scotch
- Region: Highland
- ABV: 40%
- Tasting Notes: Vanilla, spice, peach
Glenmorangie 10 has long been one of our tester's favorite single malts for when he just wants a good Scotch but doesn’t want to break out “the good Scotch.” For someone like him who likes smoothness and complexity, this whisky provides an accessible balance that’s a nice break from some of the other smoky Scotches out there. It’s buttery, with a surface sweetness and a range of spicy notes that give it plenty of depth.
Best Lowland Scotch
- Region: Lowland
- ABV: 43%
- Tasting Notes: Cherry, vanilla, honey
Auchentoshan Three Wood is a bottle our tester routinely keeps on the shelf after he first received one as gift. It’s triple-distilled, a process more typically found in Irish whiskeys and bourbons. There’s no peat. And the dark color is closer to coffee or Coca-Cola than a typical Scotch. It’s thick on the tongue and has a sweeter, almost bourbon-like flavor with notes of cherries, vanilla and honey. It’s a great option for people who think they don’t like single-malt Scotch.
Best Cask Strength Scotch
- Region: Speyside
- ABV: 61.5%
- Tasting Notes: Apple, toffee, smoke
The Glenlivet is a name known everywhere. The Nàdurra line is named for the fact that it’s released non-chill-filtered and at cask strength, or “natural.” While the rough cut Nàdurra is fantastic and the winner of Double Gold at the 2010 San Francisco World Spirits Competition, those who want a little more refinement should look no further than The Glenlivet 18.
Best Bourbon Barrel-Aged Scotch
- Region: Speyside
- ABV: 43%
- Tasting Notes: Vanilla, brown sugar, pear
The 14-Year Bourbon Barrel Reserve is aged for 14 years in ex-bourbon casks before being transferred to first-fill, heavily-charred American oak barrels from Louisville, bringing more wood. The 43% ABV, as opposed to their standard 40%, fixes the wateriness (or smoothness, depending on your preference) and helps tip this as our go-to Glenfiddich bottle.
Best Sipping Scotch
- Region: Speyside
- ABV: 43%
- Tasting Notes: Apricot, oak, crème brûlée
Aberlour keeps things simple. The brand's core line-up consists of bottles of their Scotch aged 12, 16 and 18 years old, with A’bunadh representing its cask strength offering and Casg Annamh clocking in as a small batch release to keep things interesting. For our money, the 18 hits the sweet spot for an occasional dram.
Best Luxury Scotch
- Region: Speyside
- ABV: 43%
- Tasting Notes: Clove, orange, oak
Great Scotch? Definitely. Smooth? Ridiculously. Expensive? Extremely. The Macallan 18 Sherry is the perfect Scotch for non-Scotch drinkers. It’s difficult not to love it, but as a luxury Scotch bottle, it isn’t designed to challenge you, but rather to open the door for anyone to enjoy what 18 years can do to transform whisky. It makes for a (really) nice gift and showcases what 18-year-old sherry bombs can taste like.
Best Small Batch Scotch
- Region: Highland
- ABV: 46.3%
- Tasting Notes: Pepper, peat smoke, vanilla
Ledaig comes from the Tobermory distillery in the northwest corner of the Isle of Mull, just a short hop across the water from the mainland Highlands. In contrast to Tobermory single malts, Ledaig is heavily peated and made in small batches. This un-chill-filtered bottle is a standout for the price, and a better value than the distiller's more expensive, and more refined, Ledaig 18.
Best Maritime Style Scotch
- Region: Highland (Islands)
- ABV: 45.8%
- Tasting Notes: Peat smoke, seaspray, pepper
Maritime Scotches are those crafted on the craggy coasts of Scotland, and their environment lends a seaside flavor to the liquid. Talisker's distillery is located on the Isle of Skye, and while it's technically classified as a Highland, the "Islands" is sometimes cited as its own separate category given the uniqueness of the whiskies distilled there. Talisker is our tester's favorite maritime-style whisky, thanks to its delicious beach-bonfire-in-a-bottle flavor that sees heavy doses of peat smoke and seaspray mingling with a distinct pepper note to create an unforgettable — and surprisingly affordable — experience.
Best Hidden Gem Scotch
- Region: Highland
- ABV: 43%
- Tasting Notes: Dried spices, seaweed, oak
Oban is a port city in central Scotland, and its namesake distillery borrows a little of this and a little of that to produce an extremely well-balanced Scotch that displays all the extremes of Scotland's flavor. The distillery uses some of the smallest stills in Scotland, meaning that the 18-year release is a hard-to-find limited release, despite being a flagship product. This is a perfect starting point for those first wading into Scottish waters.
Best Easy-Going Scotch
- Region: Lowland
- ABV: 43%
- Tasting Notes: Crême anglaise, lemon cheesecake, potpourri
For much of its history, Glenkenchie was producing the light-bodied Scotch typical of the Lowlands for use in blending. But in 1998, after changing hands to Diageo, the brand was selected to represent the Lowlands and the 12-year-old expression hit shelves. This is a super easy-going Scotch, with a delicate sweetness and little in the way of smoke, oak or complexity.
Best Special Occasion Scotch
- Region: Highland
- ABV: 48%
- Tasting Notes: Blackberry, chocolate, plum
An early distillery founded in 1826, was one of the first licensed distilleries in Scotland and a pioneer of sherry cask maturation. While sticker shock might steer you toward their more economical and no less worthy 12-year-old bottle, the extra age on this bottle — 21 years in Oloroso and Pedro Ximenez sherry casks — is outstanding for special occasions. Located in the far east of Scotland, near the Ardmore Distillery, come expecting whisky that’s extremely rich, sweet and fruity, but don’t expect much peat this far from Islay.
Best Blended Scotch for Cocktails
- Region: Speyside
- ABV: 40%
- Tasting Notes: Vanilla, spice, orange
For serious Scotch drinkers, the conversation typically begins and ends with single-malt varieties, with many often turning their noses up at blended Scotch. But blended Scotch has its place in any home bar, particularly for cocktails, as you don't want to be drowning out the flavors of your 16-year-old single malt with liqueurs, bitters and juices. Monkey Shoulder bills itself as a premium blended Scotch, and they aren't lying. The 100% malt whisky is a blend of three Speyside single malts (they don't tell you which ones) and is specifically designed for cocktail mixing, though it's still palatable on its own. Our tester found it to be delightful in everything from a Scotch old fashioned to more complex cocktails like a Blood & Sand, where its normally subtle fruity notes really came to life.
Types of Scotch
Single Malt: Single malt Scotch is made from a mash bill comprising 100 percent malted barley and produced in a single distillery.
Blended Malt: To be considered a blended malt Scotch whisky, it must be made up of two or more single malt Scotch whiskies from multiple distilleries.
Single Grain: To be considered a single-grain Scotch whisky, the juice must be made at one distillery from a single grain — like corn or wheat — and it can be malted or unmalted.
Blended Grain: Blended-grain Scotch is made by blending single-grain Scotch whiskies from two or more distilleries.
Blended: Blended Scotch whisky is a blend of single-malt Scotch whiskies and single-grain Scotch whiskies distilled at multiple distilleries.
Scotch Whisky Regions
Islay: Islay is a small island that’s believed to have played a major role in distilling crossing the sea from Ireland to Scotland in the 13th century. So, despite its small size, the area carries an outsized distilling resume, with heavies like Laphroaig, Lagavulin and Ardbeg residing there. Expect peaty drams of some of the best whisky in the world.
Speyside: Bisected from north to south by the River Spey, Speyside is a little pocket of land in the northeast of Scotland, surrounded on three sides by the Highlands and the North Sea. It’s home to the highest number of distilleries in Scotland, with well over 60 at present, including Glenfiddich, the world’s best-selling single malt Scotch. The region falls on the opposite side of the flavor spectrum (and map) from the peatiness of Islay. Because of this, Scotches from the region make great entry-level offerings.
Highland: Under the official Scotch Whisky Association guidelines, the Highlands region is made up of all Scottish islands (except Islay) and the mainland of northern Scotland (except Speyside). Some consider the Islands (and distilleries like Arran) as their own unofficial region. The flavors of the Highlands are too diverse to pin down with a single broad stroke; the region is so big that it’s home to distilleries that represent the entire flavor spectrum. But in general, the north brings rich body and sweetness; the west brings rich body and peatiness; the south brings delicate drams with light body; and the east brings similar lightness with a touch more fruit.
Lowland: Large in land but small in output, the Lowlands is home to only a handful of distilleries, with Auchentoshan and Glenkinchie being the most well-known. Traditionally, Lowland Scotch was triple distilled using unpeated malt for a light, simple sweetness. This simplicity lends the region to provide the base to many blends, though a few distilleries have been kicking out some peated options recently.
Campbeltown: Campbeltown juts out toward Ireland from mainland Scotland; it’s a peninsula sandwiched between Islay to the west and the Lowlands to the east. Once home to 34 distilleries and considered the whisky capital of the world, a post-war economic downturn left the region with only a handful of active distilleries. In general, expect Campbeltown whisky to be dry and pungent, with a peatiness that’s less smokey and meaty, like that found in Islay, and more earthy decay and fantastic funk.
