20 Of The Most Expensive Single Malt Whiskies In The World

The world of single malt whisky, defined as an expression that’s made at a single distillery and the vast majority of times from malted barley, is primarily a Scottish endeavor, though other regions of the world produce this type of spirit as well. Chief among these, at least in competition to Scotland anyhow, is Japan, though single malts have also been known to come from the USA, Australia and France, just to name a few.

Whatever the country, sitting atop the heap of the many, many bottlings out there are the cream of the crop of this style. They command, as you see below in our most expensive list, tens of thousands of dollars at retail. The rankings are mostly dominated by single malt Scotch, but owing to surging popularity in Japanese whisky, a few bottlings from this island nation have crept into the list as well.

The list we’ve provided of the most expensive single malt whiskies currently at retail is based upon data provided to us by Wine-Searcher. Note we’ve put the pricing information in American dollars, and also that the prices are based upon average amounts at retail, excluding tax, from a worldwide database of tens of thousands of retailers.

Editor’s Note: This information is updated as of September 1, 2016.