I get it. I’ve been there. You spend weeks meaning to buy your partner / brother / father / mother and so on something special to drink over Christmas. But the month gets away from you.
Before you know if you’ve already watched Home Alone, Elf and The Holiday, passed on Love Actually, and laboured through the work Christmas party and interminable Secret Santa distributions. And now here you are, a week to go with nothing to show for all those good intentions.
But don’t worry. It’s not like ordering a specific kids’ toy based on a Korean TV show – you can still get what you want in time for Christmas! Here are my five best buys for the sophisticated drinker in your life…
The inflationary cost-of-living fiasco has not been kind to the price of Redbreast in particular, and whisky in general. Still, generally speaking, you get what you pay for, and I have a long history of paying whatever it takes to get my hands on fine whisky that’s been thrown into an old Pedro Ximinez barrel. It honestly tastes exactly like you’d expect it to – top-tier single-pot-still Irish complexity rubbed in jamon iberico and garnished with orange zest. It will impress your chin-stroking friends who want to seem like they love great whisky. This is it. £77.50, 70 cl.
Pappy Van Winkle Special Reserve
One of the items in this list is not like the others. If perhaps you just won Euromillions, or sold your company to Google, or were fired as Manchester United manager with an eight-figure severance, this might be the one for you. I’ve had the real deal Pappy Van Winkle 20 year old a few times, always at the whim of a kind hotelier, and it’s a transcendental experience of bourbon. But who’s got £2000 lying around? Slightly cheaper, but by no means cheap, is this 12-year-old expression. I wilt in an instant at the sight of top-tier bourbon – just a glance at this immaculate label is enough to make my knees go. Don’t think of it as bourbon, think of it as an investment (there’s no doubt it would gain value aggressively). Better would be to drink it. £749.95, 70 cl
Torabhaig single malt (main picture)
These folks started releasing whisky from Skye in 2021, after opening the first distillery on the island for 190 years. Worth the wait. The Torabhaig Cnoc Na Moine is so clean to drink, at a not-too-shabby 46%, you’ll be both pleased and slightly scared at how quickly you’ll see it off. It’s warming and wintery, but not overwhelming; one to share with those uncles you see once a year, or perhaps ahead of a well-meaning bit of bonding with an awkward parent. £55.96, 70 cl
Yes, I know it’s not a whisky. Although with the rich caramel colour swirling in your glass, you’d be forgiven for thinking it was; but there’s no getting past the aggressively fruity nose. This is rum alright, with that comforting tobacco-and-firewood depth rushing into your nostrils before you can even get the glass to your lips. Not a whole lot of great exports make it out of Venezuela these days, but this is certainly one of them, offering something a little different even for the rum connaisseur. And with five double gold medals round its neck from recent international awards, it’s not here to play. Don’t miss this one. £74.95, 70 cl
I’m including this because at £65 at the Whisky Exchange this is an absolutely scandalous steal and surely can’t last. Nikka’s ‘entry-level’ is everyone else’s ‘premium’ and your chance of buying this, but then drinking it, and shrugging aimlessly unimpressed, is zero per cent. It’s light, it’s accessible, but it’s forensic and precise the way all the best Japanese single malts are. You’ll want to impress guests by having it, and then discourage them from trying to drink it, because it’s so pleasant and luxurious. Buy a few and keep them back for the first of February when you’re ready to say goodbye to dry January in style £65.50, 70 cl.
And with that, I raise my glass to you. Slainte. Now get to the shops!
