Cutty Sark 17 Year Old

This iconic blended whisky brand was created by Berry Bros. & Rudd - more on them elsewhere in this set - in 1923. On 23rd March. Over lunch. Scottish artist James McBey suggested naming it after the famous tea clipper in the news (its own name taken from Robert Burns’ Tam o’ Shanter), the striking yellow labels were actually a (cleverly kept) printing error, and Bill ‘the real’ McCoy helped make it big in the US during prohibition.

Bought by Macallan owner Edrington in 2010, then by Glen Moray owner La Martiniquaise-Bardinet in 2018, the latter have been busy. Here master blender Stephen Woodcock’s team married aged Highland and Speyside single malts for 17 months in sherry and Port casks before adding first-fill bourbon cask grain. It’s 40% malt, natural colour, and for our money shares a touch of tiramisu-laden DNA with their (>£900) Centenary blend…