A select few whiskies, chosen by our expert, to keep you warm and on point through the season.
For an Extravagant Mood
Yes, this is without question a luxury whisky, priced beyond what most mere mortals would consider a reasonable spend on a spirit. However, when you compare it to other Scottish single malts of similar ages, most of which easily climb into the high four- or even five-figure range, sherry cask–aged Glenfarclas begins to look like a bit of a bargain, especially when you consider what you’re getting for your money.
Pouring a rich golden colour, Glenfarclas offers immediate chocolate and toasted nut alongside toffee, floral vanilla, and dried apricot and peach notes on the nose, and a surprisingly fresh palate with orange up front, followed by vanilla, toffee, raisin and date, citrus oils and toasted almond, finishing with lingering chocolate and toffee. Stunning complexity at a fraction of the price of many other 40-year-old malts.
For After the Feast
Writers’ Tears wasn’t the first distillery to come up with the idea of finishing their whiskey in icewine casks, but they might just be the best to have executed it — a perhaps surprising result, considering that the Irish have not historically embraced cask finishes. This blend of single pot still and single malt whiskies is aged for an unspecified length of time before completing its maturation with a year in Inniskillin icewine barrels.
Bright gold of hue, this whiskey shows its pedigree immediately with a complex aroma of lightly cooked peach, pear and apricot, mixed with heady florals and rich honey. The real delight, however, arrives on the palate when the lush mouthfeel reveals notes of sweet icewine mixed with an intensity of concentrated apricot and peach, backed up by light oak, almost nectar-like vanilla, and supporting spice cake. For sipping neat only.
For the Family Get-Together
Back in the 1990s, barrel-strength Booker’s Bourbon from the Jim Beam Distillery jump-started the market for super-premium American whiskeys. It was the creation of legendary Kentucky distiller Booker Noe, and today it serves as inspiration for a series of whiskeys developed by his grandson, Freddie Noe, or as Booker used to call him, Little Book.
Chapter 8 in the Little Book series is a blend of seven whiskeys, six of them straight ryes and one an 18-year-old high-rye bourbon. With so much rye involved, it’s hardly surprising to find that this copper-hued whiskey offers an abundance of the grain on the nose, with toasted rye bread notes, hints of pepper and a smattering of other spice. On the palate, the oakiness of the bourbon arrives first, quickly followed by dry butterscotch notes, cooked vanilla, dried apricot and a flourish of peppery spice on the finish. A real treat for aficionados of straight rye.
For Awards-Show Season
There is an abundance of celebrity-driven spirits on the market today, but precious few hit the combination of quality, character and affordability as does this Canadian whisky bearing the signature of Kiefer Sutherland. Launched in the fall of 2023, Red Bank was developed from sourced whiskies by Master Blender Michel Marcil to the rye-forward flavour profile favoured by Sutherland and his three partners, including spirits industry veteran Shawn Hiscott.
Sweetish and floral on both the nose and front palate, with honey and peach notes, this whisky grows drier and lightly peppery in the middle before an off-dry finish with lingering flavours of pepper and brown spice. While bold and complex enough for mixing, Red Bank also boasts enough character and charm that it can easily be enjoyed on its own, with or without a cube or two of ice.
There has never been a whisky before like Ao. To create it, Suntory mined its distilleries across five nations, sourcing the spirits that best defined their native styles and skillfully blending them to make a true “world whisky.” In Japan and Scotland, two distilleries are tapped in each country — Yamazaki and Hakushu in the former, Ardmore and Glen Garioch in the latter — while Ireland’s contribution comes from the Cooley Distillery and America’s from Jim Beam. Canada is represented by Alberta Distillers.
On the nose, a soft and mellow fruitiness in Ao mixes with hints of black pepper and nutmeg, gentle vanilla and just a whiff of peat. The flavour begins with a rose-like sweetness accented by peach notes, leading to a fruity and caramelly midpalate, with baked pear, vanilla, overripe cantaloupe and soft white pepper, finishing dry, lightly smoky and peppery. It’s a bold experiment with an impressive result.
For Robbie Burns Day
Over the last several years, many Scottish distilleries have distanced themselves from including age statements on their whiskies. So, it’s a refreshing change to not only see Glenmorangie embrace age but actually reposition their Original, from a 10- to a 12-year-old, and at the same price point. According to the brand’s director of whisky creation, Bill Lumsden, the aim was to “turn up the volume” on the single malt’s characteristic flavour elements.
And turn them up he did. Where the nose of the 10-year-old was soft and perfumy, the 12 sports a bigger aroma, with fresh peach and orange notes accented by enticing vanilla. On the palate, the silken vanilla-and-honey start leads to a round, citrusy, floral middle boasting notes of cream and stone fruit, finishing with lingering notes of toasted almond and a touch of spice. An acknowledged classic boldly reimagined.
For Curry and Haggis Night
Amrut Distillery was founded in 1949, principally for the production of the sort of bargain spirits that dominate the Indian market — an approach that changed, first in 1988, when Amrut began blending malt whisky into its spirits, and then again, in 2004, when the company produced India’s first single malt. Amrut has since gone on to win international respect and awards for such whiskies as its flagship Indian Single Malt, Indian Peated Malt and, of course, Fusion.
Blended from single malts distilled from Himalayan-grown Indian malt and Scottish peated malt, separately aged at over 900 metres above sea level before blending, Fusion offers an aroma of cereal grain, orange and clove, layered over an elegantly smoky base. On the palate, a fruity start of mandarin and pear notes gradually gives way to moderate smokiness that grows through the finish, more smouldering peat than raging campfire. A delicious blending of cultures.
By Stephen Beaumont
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