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Best whisky under £50

Age-stated single malts, blended malts, bourbon and Irish whiskey that sell for under £50 a full-size bottle, grouped by style, with live UK prices.

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Under £50 you can buy age-stated single malts such as Glenfiddich 12 Year Old and Talisker 10 Year Old, blended malts such as Johnnie Walker Green Label, and bourbon and Irish whiskey such as Maker’s Mark 46 and Green Spot. The groups below are by style, so choose the flavour first.

Single malt, blended malt or blended Scotch? The terms describe how a whisky is made, not its quality. First question: is it all malt whisky? If yes, ask whether it comes from one distillery. If it does, it is single malt Scotch, made from malted barley in pot stills at one distillery; this guide's picks are Glenfiddich 12 Year Old, The Glenlivet 12 Year Old, Deanston 12 Year Old, Jura 12 Year Old, Talisker 10 Year Old, Ardbeg 10 Year Old and Kilchoman Machir Bay. If it comes from more than one distillery, it is a blended malt, with no grain whisky: Johnnie Walker Green Label and Monkey Shoulder. If it is not all malt, it is blended Scotch, which mixes one or more single malts with one or more single grain whiskies.

Unpeated single malts

Speyside and Highland malts at 10 to 12 years old make up most of this group.

Glenfiddich 12 Year Old: £36.96 at Master of Malt. A 40% ABV Speyside single malt matured in American and European oak casks.

The Glenlivet 12 Year Old: £34.95 at Hard To Find Whisky. A 40% ABV Speyside single malt from one of the first distilleries licensed after the Excise Act of 1823.

Deanston 12 Year Old: £35.95 at Master of Malt. A 46.3% ABV Highland single malt, bottled without chill-filtration. Whiskipedia on chill-filtration.

Jura 12 Year Old: £33.50 at Master of Malt. A 40% ABV single malt from the Isle of Jura, matured in ex-bourbon casks and finished in oloroso sherry casks.

Peated single malts

Talisker 10 Year Old: £39.15 at Master of Malt. A 45.8% ABV single malt from the Isle of Skye, peated by house style.

Ardbeg 10 Year Old: £40.52 at Master of Malt. A 46% ABV Islay single malt, bottled without chill-filtration. Ardbeg specifies its malt at 50 to 55 ppm, among the higher figures for a core range. Whiskipedia on Ardbeg.

Kilchoman Machir Bay: £44.25 at Master of Malt. A 46% ABV Islay single malt with no age statement, from a farm distillery that opened in 2005 and malts part of its own barley. Whiskipedia on Kilchoman.

For more smoke in this budget, see the best peated whisky under £50.

Blended malts

Johnnie Walker Green Label: £46.00 at The Whisky Shop. A 43% ABV blended malt with a 15-year age statement, made only from malt whisky, with no grain whisky.

Monkey Shoulder: £30.95 at Hard To Find Whisky. A 40% ABV blended malt of Speyside malts from William Grant & Sons, the owner of Glenfiddich and Balvenie.

Bourbon and Irish whiskey

Maker’s Mark 46: £47.00 at The Whisky Shop. A 47% ABV Kentucky bourbon. After standard maturation, seared French oak staves are added to the barrel for a further period.

Woodford Reserve: £35.50 at Master of Malt. A 43.2% ABV Kentucky straight bourbon.

Green Spot Irish Whiskey 70cl: £45.95 at Master of Malt. A 40% ABV single pot still Irish whiskey from Midleton, made from malted and unmalted barley and matured in bourbon and sherry casks.

More in this budget

Other full-size bottles in the £30 to £50 band:

Sources and review

Where to go next

Questions

What is the difference between single malt, blended malt and blended Scotch?
Single malt Scotch is made from malted barley in pot stills at one distillery. Blended malt mixes single malts from more than one distillery, with no grain whisky. Blended Scotch mixes one or more single malts with one or more single grain whiskies. Whiskipedia on vatted and blended whisky.
Is single malt better than a blend?
Not automatically. The terms describe how a whisky is made, not its quality. A 15-year-old blended malt such as Johnnie Walker Green Label contains older whisky than many single malts, and many single malts are themselves blends of casks from one distillery.
What does an age statement mean?
An age statement gives the age of the youngest whisky in the bottle. A 12 year old may contain older whisky but none younger than 12 years. Whisky with no age statement (NAS) can still contain old stock; the producer has simply chosen not to state an age. Whiskipedia on no age statements.

About the author

Tom Gregan

· Writer

Tom came to whisky by way of cocktails and rum. As the mind behind CocktailDB.com he spent years on citrus balance, bitters and modifiers before John dragged him over to neat spirits.