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Best of 2023: Top 10 Best Selling Whiskies
10. Macallan 15 Year Old Double Cask
The first of a few expressions from Speyside titans, The Macallan, on this list, Macallan 15 Year Old Double Cask is a gorgeous single malt. The distillery brings American oak to Spain, where their bespoke casks are hand-crafted and filled with dry Oloroso sherry. Once seasoned, these casks are shipped to Scotland to be filled with new make spirit from The Macallan stills. After 15 years, the Whisky Mastery Team set about combining spirit from both types of cask to create a balanced, warm, and sweet whisky.
9. The Macallan A Night on Earth - The Journey
A brand new release, The Journey was the second release in the Macallan's acclaimed A Night On Earth series. Crafted in collaboration with acclaimed Chinese artist Nini Sum, the limited edition bottling was aged in a perfectly balanced combination of first-fill American ex-bourbon barrels and European and American oak. Its innovative, multi-layered packaging was inspired by New Year, and represents the different stages of the journey to reunite with loved ones during the festive season.
8. Scotch Whisky Collection 25 Drams Advent Calendar
Gifters couldn't get enough of our much-loved Scotch whisky advent calendar, which rewarded whisky lovers with a dram a day in the lead up to Christmas. From peated to fruity, to blended to single malt, each expression was specially selected for a journey through all the diverse flavours Scotch has to offer.
7. Hibiki Japanese Harmony
Always a winner, this much-loved blended Japanese whisky is balanced, woody and sweet, with a hint of rare Mizunara oak on the finish. The name Hibiki means 'resonance', as it speaks to the soul and emotions of the most discerning whisky lover, resonating from nature and all the subtleties found from the twenty-four seasons of the old Japanese lunar calendar. Indeed, the twenty-four seasons are recollected by Hibiki’s bottle shape, which has twenty-four facets.
6. Dailuaine 16 Year Old
Often seen as an underrated dram, Dailuaine 16 year old received the love it certainly deserves this year. Hailing from Diageo's "Flora and Fauna" collection, it is one of the few releases of Dailuaine as a single malt, and is a complicated expression - full and sweet, yet also citric-fresh.
5. Macallan 12 Year Old Sherry Oak
Another great Macallan core expression which our customers took a shine to this year, Macallan 12 Year Old Sherry Oak is a deliciously smooth single malt. Described as refined, rich, and rounded with plenty of sherry cask influence and perfectly balanced with wood smoke and spice. It has often been dubbed 'simply the best 12 Year Old single malt around'.
4. Macallan 12 Year Old Double Cask
The slightly younger sibling of No.10 on our list, The Macallan 12 Year Old Double Cask was favoured perhaps because of its particularly spiced palate, with notes of honeyed wood spices alongside citrus, raisins and caramel.
3. Yamazaki 12 Year Old Suntory 100th Anniversary Release
As 2023 marked 100 years of Suntory whisky, this once-in-a-lifetime commemorative bottling was added to the collections of many Japanese whisky fans this year. Yamazaki was the first distillery opened by Suntory founder Shinjiro Torii, and is often hailed as the 'birthplace of Japanese whisky'. This bottle featured a special new label design in honour of Suntory's strive for quality and ingenuity, with the liquid boasting their signature note of Mizanara (Japanese oak).
2. Lagavulin 16 Year Old
Also gracing our top 10 best sellers of 2022 list, Lagavulin 16 Year Old is a timeless dram which is often regarded as one of the best whiskies in the world, with demand being extremely high. This year was no different. Lagavulin distillery is known as one of Scotland's 'essential' distilleries on the historic whisky-making island of Islay. The intense character of their flagship 16 Year Old comes from their own richly peaty water supply; the heavily peated barley; the unusually long fermentation (up to 75 hours); and the slowest distillation of any Islay single malt.
1. Isle of Harris The Hearach
The inaugural release from the Isle of Harris, the remarkable The Hearach, was our best selling whisky of 2023. Continually selling out, we managed to secure a large amount of their eight batches from their first release, which garnered much buzz in the whisky world. The first legal dram from the island, every drop has been made by local people to revive the distilling culture that was lost in the 1840s. Matured for a minimum of five years, in a combination of first-fill ex-bourbon casks and Oloroso and Fino sherry butts, the expression is lightly peated at 12-15ppm with fruity, floral and sweet-spicy notes and gentle peat smoke.
