My Top Budget Whisky Picks for Christmas

Know someone who loves their whisky? Not sure what to buy them for Christmas and have a limited budget to spend? Here are my top budget whisky picks for the festive season!

Around £30

Aberlour 10
You can pick this little gem up for £25 without too much trouble. If you want a good all-rounder that everyone can enjoy, you can't go too wrong with this dram. It's a classic Speysider! Lot's of sweet ripe fruit and toffee notes in here with a healthy dab of woodiness thrown in for good measure. Well balanced with the mix of finishes (ex-bourbon and sherry) creating a very mature and fulfilling dram for the price point. Should be on every whisky-lover's shelf!




Laphroaig 10
Do you know someone who loves peated whisky and you don't know where to start? Take it from me that every peat lover would be delighted to receive a bottle of Laphroaig 10. For most people this is their entry into the world of peat and it still stands up well against the rest. Again, the keen eyed will be able to pick a bottle up for not much north of £25 and it packs a punch! Lots to talk about here with this complex and fascinating whisky. Expect to find heaps of peaty smokiness (as you would expect in all Islay whiskies), iodine and fresh pine wood notes. Less refined than the big hitter, Lagavulin 16 but for me the rawness and naked beauty of this dram is why I and so many others love it as much as we do.

Around £40

Benromach Chateau Cissac Finish
I won't go into any great depth on this one as I waxed lyrical about this in an earlier blog that you can read here. This was my top pick for whiskies under £40 at last year's TWE Whisky Show. Benromach have launched a new wood finish for this year (which is still great but not quite as great as this one) so this expression is getting harder and harder to find. You should still be able to pick it up in good whisky shops, I've seen it on The Whisky Exchange website for £39 so get out there and grab a bottle while you still can!

Kilchoman Machir Bay
For those regular readers of my blogs, you will know that no round-up of whiskies would be complete without the inclusion of a Kilchoman. Their Loch Gorm is probably my all-time favourite readily available whisky but to be honest there isn't a bad dram in their range. With this offering you get plenty of that distinctive Islay peat smoke, however it is subtler and sweeter with further citrus notes developing the more you drink it. If you know someone who wants to progress from Speyside to Islay this could well be the dram to get them!

Auchentoshan Three Wood
This one is a bit polarising. Some people adore this whisky, other's really aren't that bothered. I fall into the former. This beauty from Glasgow's own distillery has so much going on. The more you try it, the more it opens itself up to you. Matured in three woods (ex-bourbon, Oloroso and Pedro Ximenez casks) is nothing unusual. However because Auchentoshan is one of the few Scottish distilleries to use triple distillation, what you get is a very unique flavour profile. Triple distillation allows for a "cleaner" spirit, which for me allows it to take on more of the flavours from the wood. What you get here is loads of sweet dried fruits and Christmas cake-y flavours alongside oakiness and vanilla tones. If you haven't experienced this one, I'd say give it a try!

Clynelish 14
This is a cracker of a malt! One of Diageo's hidden gems that really should be better known. This is the only Highland dram in this list and boy is it a good one. There is lots to love about this whisky. I get that lovely salty brineyness that is so characteristic of eastern coastal malts such as Scapa and Highland Park, but alongside that I get loads of light citrus fruits and spicy (almost mustard) flavours that make this really distinctive. Everything is so well balanced here in this very easy-drinking malt. Everyone should try Clynelish 14, it's the gift that keeps on giving!



So, here you have it folks! This list is by no means exhaustive as there are about another ten or twenty whiskies that I could have added to the mix, but hopefully this provides you with some food for thought for what you could buy for that whisky-loving friend or family member. Some of these you will have no doubt heard of or tried but hopefully there is at least something here that's a little different. Do let me know how you get on...

Until next time, sláinte and Merry Christmas!