The best Scotch whiskies to buy, as chosen by the Gentleman’s Journal team

There’s nothing quite so neat as whisky. And, here at Gentleman’s Journal, we get to try more than our fair share of the spirited stuff. We can be frequently found heading up to the Highlands. Our cocktail-creating skills are second-to-none. And we’ve kitted out our home bars with plenty of glassware and accoutrements to maximise our enjoyment of every expression.

But, as for the bottles themselves, we often disagree. Some of our number prefer uncorking a Campbeltown special; oily and brimming with brine. Others reach for Islay whiskies – fiery and heavily peated. Below, we asked the team for their favourites. And, from a limited-edition single malt to a handsomely bottled blend, here’s what they said…

Chosen by Joseph Bullmore, Editor

I don’t know if Laphroaig is my favourite whisky, and I’m always slightly wary of people who say it’s theirs – they tend, in my experience, to also brag about adoring chilli sauces with names like ‘Tongue Napalm’ and stand too close to you at parties. But it’s certainly full of fond memories, which might well be what good whisky is about.

When I was 18 and working at a quiet branch of Oddbins in Oxford, my colleague John, in his mid-50s and a walking encyclopedia of wine and spirits, would sometimes permit us to bring out ‘The Box’. This was an old wooden crate full of sample bottles of various whiskies and gins which he would let us uncork in the colder, calmer depths of winter, when we might average three customers an evening.

In my first week there, John took out a bottle of Laphroaig 10 and talked me and the other assistant through its peculiar, powerful delights. It was the first time I really ‘got’ a single malt, and the whole experience possibly set me on a path to become the most pretentious teenager in North Oxford. But if I smell it now, ultra-peaty and smokily medicinal, Laphroaig takes me back to my first proper job – with its stretches of boredom, its pungent wooden floors, and its heady sense of Gap Year freedom – and makes me feel happy and sad at once.

Chosen by Josh Lee, Copy Chief

Alcohol, on the whole, isn’t my bag – just a little can make my stomach feel like a killing floor and my head like the Friday night of a dodgy Berlin technoclub. I can make an exception for a sweet hit of plum wine; vermouth is fine when softened with some tonic water, ice and a hot Barcelona day; and Guinness is just perfect.

I also have a soft spot for Glenmorangie – last year, I visited the House in the far north of Scotland, a sort of end-of-the-Earth place where the sweet, coconuty smell of gorse fragranced the air and the only sounds you could hear were the gentle waves on the coastline. There were a lot of madcap offerings – one tasted a bit like cake, another was inspired by Tokyo – but the Calvados Cask Finish stood out to me, a bit like the cup of a carpenter in The Last Crusade. Simple, straight to the point, clean, and flavoured with baked apples and pears. One tumbler is plenty for me to feel at ease with the world – and far from the pains of a killing floor and Berlin.

Chosen by Dan Scothern, Partnerships Director

The quote “I can resist everything but temptation” (though I’m confident Oscar Wilde wasn’t referring to fine spirits) springs to mind each year as I fleetingly consider Dry January. There’s no doubt in my mind that Dry January would have its benefits, but when I think of all the heavenly drams that would pass me by, the decision to forgo becomes clear.

One such dram that I recently had the pleasure of sampling is the 30 Year Old single malt from Speyside icon, Longmorn. The oldest in the Longmorn range, it immediately enticed me with raspberry jam and cherries on the nose, which gave way to toffee, dark fudge and walnuts on the palate. Unquestionably smooth, and intriguingly balanced, be prepared for the apricot and cinnamon spice finish to stay with you for some time after the final sip.

Chosen by Aobh O’Brien-Moody, Associate Editor

I’m a sucker for a backstory. It’s the reason I seek out certain brands for their storied heritage. It’s the reason I adore vintage shopping, rummaging through racks and imagining the former lives of a perfectly worn-in pair of 501s or a battered leather jacket. Context breeds within me a sense of regard and reverence: it offers a ‘why’ to the ‘what’.

Hence my fondness for Loch Lomond’s new Waypoint Series, which bills itself as a celebration of the Highland distillery’s sense of place and adventure. The first edition of the series is a liquid tribute to the Falls of Falloch, a mesmerising natural landmark local to the Loch Lomond distillery and essential to the company’s lore. I’m yet to visit the Falls, but a dram or two of this delightful unpeated 16-year-old single malt saves me the nine-hour drive from London. A marketer’s dream I may be, but I maintain that a rich backstory makes all the difference. If I close my eyes tight enough and take a sip, I’m just about transported.

Chosen by Jonathan Wells, Contributor

First things first: this isn’t the best whisky in the world. It isn’t even the best whisky from Compass Box – a boutique London-based brand on a crusade to champion overlooked, underrated blended whiskies. But it is the first bottle of whisky I ever bought, during my scotch-soaked second year of university (when most drams in digs were Bells, or Grouse).

Like those supermarket scotches, it’s a blend. But, featuring malts from Clynelish, Cameronbridge and Linkwood, Compass Box’s straw-coloured, delicately combined whisky wins out (for me) for one reason; its versatility. It’s a spirit for all seasons – brimming with Christmas spices upon the first sip, but bringing summer flowers on the next; a touch of autumn apples, followed by the zesty zing of springtime. Have it in a highball.

For more from the world of whisky, read our conversation with a Sotheby's spirits expert...

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