The World’s Best Single Malt Scotch Whisky—According T0 The 2024 London Spirits Competition

Last week we reported on the best tequila and bourbon to come out of the 2024 London Spirits Competition. As a quick refresher, the annual judging includes 40 of the top palates from the UK and continental Europe and focuses not only on the greatest-tasting spirits, but also the ones that demonstrate the best value to drinkers. Today we’re taking a closer look at what these venerated samplers selected as the best single malt scotch currently available on shelves.

The award goes to…Dùn Cana Sherry Quarter Cask Release from Isle of Raasay Hebridean Distillers. It’s a unique liquid, initially matured in American rye casks before undergoing a secondary aging in a combination of PX and Oloroso sherry quarter casks. We’ll go into detail about the associated tasting notes in a moment. But first let’s understand why this aging process is such a unique one.

For starters, most scotches you see today are aged in ex-bourbon casks. It makes for a fine-tasting whisky, sure. It’s also a function of logistical convenience, though. In bourbon-making, casks can only be used once for maturation. Which means that there are a ton of freshly-dumped casks in Kentucky looking for a new home. So they often end up across the Atlantic, in both Irish whiskey and Scotch whisky warehouses.

American rye also relies exclusively on virgin cooperage. And as that category continues to soar, it stands to reason that there ought to be more ex-rye barrels working their way—as aging vessels—into other styles of whiskey around the world. The holdup is that the savory style of that spirit can be tricky to work with; you don’t want to overpower the nuance of the malt it’s maturing.

The talented folks at Isle of Raasay have found a way to tame the beast. They bring rye spice in balance against the dark fruit notes found in sherry quarter casks (they are named such because after being retrieved from the south of Spain, they are cut down by coopers from their original 500 liter capacity, into 4 separate barrels—125 liters in capacity a piece).

It also helps that the upstart distillery, founded in 2017 along the rugged shores of its eponymous island, utilizes a small portion of peated spirit to push into these barrels. The slight tinge of campfire smoke from the underlying malt is rendered as salty cocoa nibs by the time it hits the bottle. And that’s just the sprinkling atop this flavorful sundae. It’s a complex dessert dram, yielding peppery barbecue sauce in the nose and dark chocolate-coated dates in the sip. It finishes firmly with a faint echo of incense spice.

The 52% ABV, non-age-statement, non-chill filtered whisky is currently only available to order online to the UK and select US states for around $105 a bottle. The first edition of its release comprised only 14,000 bottles worldwide. So, get it while you still can.