The best value for money single malts of 2024

When it comes to the best whisky, there’s no point arguing about price, right? Well, not quite.

Drinking good whiskey can be an expensive affair – some bottles cost more than a really nice family home – but it doesn’t have to be. Even in the select ranks of single malts, there are some relative bargains to be had.

Single malts are considered the Rolls Royce of whiskies, especially those from Scotland. The big names like Macallan, Glenlivet and Ardbeg can easily ruin an overzealous collector, but even the more upscale distilleries aren’t afraid to charge money for their product. And they shouldn’t, because it’s an expensive business to keep barrels of spirits until they’re old enough to bottle and sell.

These bottles will never be as affordable as, say, our most affordable blends, but that doesn’t mean you have to shell out four figures to sample the kind of drams that whisky lovers rave about. In fact, you don’t even have to shell out three figures to sample the pinnacle of distilling, as you’ll see from our list below.

Before we get into value, let’s discuss the spelling of “whiskey.” While we usually refer to the liquor generically as “whiskey,” we tend to use the spelling “whisky” for Scottish, Canadian, and Japanese products. So when we use “whiskey,” we’re talking generally about the brown liquor in all its forms, and the other spelling is used for specific whiskies. Given the makeup of the list, we’ve referred to them all as “whiskies.”

So let’s talk about value. In this age of automation and algorithms, we’re still pretty old school when it comes to value. We hand-select these products and use a pretty straightforward point-to-dollar ratio for a simplified value-for-money scale. We divide the score by the price and get a value score. The higher the value score, the more points per dollar.

It’s not just about being cheap, though. Every spirit on the list has an overall rating of at least 90 points, which is important. In the world of spirits writers, ratings in the 80s are usually considered very good, so the whiskies listed below are definitely a class above.

The best single malts on Wine-Searcher:

Well, there’s a surprise on top, isn’t there? Not only is The Sexton a very good whisky, it’s also Irish. It’s made with water from the same source as Bushmills and by Bushmills’ master blender, the extremely talented Alex Thomas, who has outdone herself with this bottling.

However, apart from the Trini bottling (from India), the others all come from Scotland – and, more importantly, from easily recognisable distilleries. Names such as Laphroaig, Highland Park, Aberlour and Glenmorangie will be familiar even to those with only a superficial knowledge of the single malt scene.

These whiskies are not only well known, but also of high quality. Of the ten listed, four have an overall rating of 90 points (The Sexton, Cardhu, Glen Garioch and Aberlour) and another four have 91 points (Trini, Laphroaig, Highland Park and Glenmorangie). The Benriach has an overall rating of 92 points, while the Arran has an impressive 98 points.

Prices range from a worldwide average selling price of just $33 (Sexton) to $65 for the Arran.

Life is too short to drink bad whisky, that’s true – but when it comes to affordable whisky, things are quite different.