5 Exceptional Drams for Under £80

Whisky may be a premium spirit, but that doesn’t mean you need to pay premium prices to enjoy a quality drop. To prove it, here are 5 exceptional drams that can be yours for under £80.

By Greg Dillon

Greg Dillon is the founder of GreatDrams.com, an award-winning independent bottler. A whisky writer and author of The GreatDrams of Scotland, his work focuses on authenticity, production, and whisky as something to be shared.

In life, people say that we ‘get what we pay for’ and in all honesty, I’m not sure I entirely agree with that. Sure, I get the sentiment behind it, but I don’t feel that’s entire accurate, especially when it comes to whisky.

Whisky may be considered a premium spirit, but that doesn’t mean you have to pay premium prices for a quality drop. I’ve tried whiskies valued at thousands of pounds over the years, that in my humble opinion, have been less enjoyable than drams costing less than £80. This goes to show that affordable, quality drams are still out there, you just need to know where to look.

Listen, I know that £80 is nothing to be sniffed at, but for a premium-quality whisky, I don’t think that’s too bad at all. As long as you enjoy it. To help you do just that, and to prove that you don’t need to spend thousands, or even hundreds, to enjoy a fine whisky, I’ve compiled the following list for you today.

Here are 5 drams I consider to be truly exceptional, for LESS than £80.

The Macallan 12 Year Old Double Cask

Starting off with the big guns, you don’t get more premium than a Macallan.

The Macallan is a name that needs no introduction in the whisky world. The mere mention of the word conjures up images of luxury and decadence. It’s a brand that has cemented itself as, arguably, the most premium in the entire world when it comes to whisky.

While there are plenty of drops from this Speyside distillery that cost thousands, some even millions, there are also a surprising amount of expressions that cost less than a family day out at the cinema, including food and drink. This 12 year old dram is a prime example.

Complex, balanced, and full of Macallan charm, this single malt has been aged for 12 years in a combo of European and American oak casks. It’s got plenty of sweet vanilla, candied peel, and woody notes, with just the right amount of toffee sweetness, with subtle fruity, spicy notes right at the end there.

Best of all? It costs roughly £70 – £75 as of this writing.

Glenfarclas 15 Year Old

There’s a lot to love about this next expression, a fifteen-year-old dram from Glenfarclas, and it isn’t just the £73 – £75 price tag either.

Having won a number of spirit awards over the years, this is a dram that’s perfect for those of you who appreciate plenty of sherry notes in your whisky. In fact, dare I say, despite it technically not even being summer just yet, this is a whisky that would make a fantastic Christmas present.

A real winter warmer, it’s rich in sherried fruit notes, Iced Christmas cake, orange zest, and vanilla custard. It has a spicy, warming, nuttiness to it, with plenty of mixed peel and just the right amount of oak. To really amp up those sweet notes, a drop or two of mineral water will work wonders.

Lagavulin 16 Year Old

Now for something a little more smoky and intense.

If you appreciate your drams with plenty of peat smoke and those briny, medicinal, coastal notes we’ve come to expect from an Islay expression, Lagavulin 16 Year Old will not disappoint.

A key component in their core range, and now widely regarded as their flagship bottle, it recently enjoyed quite the boost in popularity, when it was featured on the hit US comedy series Parks and Recreation. The drink serves as Nick Offerman’s Ron Swanson’s favourite tipple, and since then, the brand has collaborated with the actor on numerous occasions.

Having won a whopping 14 global spirit awards, it’s a dram that was matured in a combination of sherry and ex-bourbon casks. It strikes the perfect balance between sweet, fruity, smoky, medicinal, coastal, and briny. You get that intense iodine rich peat smoke, with plenty of spicy oak and mixed fruit to balance everything out.

Dark, brooding, and complex, a bottle will set you back around £70 – £72.

Annandale Man O’Words Vintage 2017

Lowlands whiskies can sometimes be overlooked in favour of drops from The Highlands, Speyside, and Islay, and that is a real shame in my opinion. Especially considering you can enjoy whiskies like this for less than £70, let alone £80. This dram, which by the way, is a cask strength, costs around £65 – £68, give or take a quid or two.

I’m a big fan of the Annandale Man O’Words range, and their Man O’Swords releases too for that matter, and this dram is definitely up there amongst the best in my humble opinion.

Named in honour of the fantastic Robert ‘Rabbie’ Burns, this vintage single malt was distilled in 2017 and matured in an Oloroso sherry cask to mature before being bottled at a cask strength of 61.6% ABV. It’s heavy on the fruit, this one, with prominent notes of stewed apples, figs drizzled in honey, candied walnuts, and treacle tart served with ice cream. There’s a surprising amount of spice too, with a fiery finish that lingers, and trust me, that’s no bad thing.

GreatDrams Rare Cask Series English Whisky Co 11 Year Old

Finally, we have another multi-award-winning dram, this time from GreatDrams, in the form of our 11-year-old English whisky.

Now, I may be slightly biased here, but for a gold-medal winning English whisky, matured in first-fill PX sherry casks, I think £75 is quite the bargain. This 11-year-old English single malt first spent 4 years in an ex-bourbon cask, before receiving an additional 7 years of maturation in first-fill Pedro Ximenez sherry casks. The results, if you don’t me saying, are remarkable.

We’d been wanting to bottle a cask from the English Whisky Distillery for a number of years. As soon as we tasted the samples, we knew we had to make it happen. This is a dram with plenty of dark fruit, sticky toffee pudding, orange blossom honey, and subtle winter spice notes. It also offers up a very lengthy finish, with a fantastic mouthfeel.

Tags: Exceptional Drams

Greg

My name is Greg, and I’m a brand strategy consultant, writer, speaker, host and judge specialising in premium spirits. My mission is to experience, share and inspire with everything great about whisky, whiskey, gin, beer and fine dining through my writing, my brand building and my whisky tastings.