The International Whisky Competition is one of the most respected blind-tasting competitions in the spirits calendar, judging entries across a range of categories without the judges knowing what is in the glass.
The 2025 results produced a striking concentration of winners from a single corporate stable. Seven of the nine single malt Scotch category trophies went to distilleries owned by Bacardi’s John Dewar & Sons subsidiary: Aultmore won three age categories and the overall Best Single Malt Scotch title, Craigellachie won two, and Royal Brackla one. Glenmorangie, Ardbeg, and the independent Isle of Raasay Distillery accounted for the remaining three.
In preparation for the upcoming 2026 competition, with the winners set to be announced in June, we are looking back at the best single malt Scotch whiskies from last year. Will any of them take titles again?
Isle of Raasay Dùn Cana
Award: Best Single Malt Scotch NAS (No Age Statement) | 94.67 pts
Tasting Notes: Rich dried fruit, sultanas, vanilla toffee, roasted nuts, white pepper, sea salt, wood smoke
Find Your Next Bottle: $81
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Isle of Raasay is a small Inner Hebridean island sitting between Skye and the Scottish mainland, and until relatively recently, it had no legal distillery.
The Isle of Raasay Distillery was founded in 2017 by R&B Distillers, making it the first legal distillery in the island’s history. Dùn Cana, named after the island’s distinctive flat-topped volcanic peak, is an annual limited release and one of the most decorated expressions in the distillery’s young portfolio.
It is made from both peated and unpeated spirit, with the peated barley coming in at around 48 to 52 ppm. Both are matured first in ex-rye whiskey barrels, specifically casks that previously held Woodford Reserve, Peerless, and Wild Turkey, before spending a further six months in Pedro Ximénez and Oloroso sherry quarter casks. The smaller quarter cask format increases the spirit-to-wood contact ratio, accelerating flavour development. It is bottled at 52% ABV.
Isle of Raasay Distillery is well-known for experimental maturation, some of which includes an Oak Species Maturation series that, as the name suggests, matures whisky in various different oak types.
Ardbeg Ten Years Old
Award: Best Single Malt Scotch 10 Year Old | 91.11 pts
Tasting Notes: Sea spray, tarry rope, smoke, black pepper, lemon and lime, espresso, liquorice root
Find Your Next Bottle: $43
Ardbeg has been producing whisky on the south coast of Islay since 1815, though its modern story is one of near-extinction and revival. The distillery closed in 1981, reopened briefly, and was effectively mothballed again in 1991 before Glenmorangie plc, now part of LVMH, acquired it in 1997 and returned it to full-time production. The Ten is the expression that anchored that comeback and remains the distillery’s flagship today.
It is made from heavily peated malted barley, at around 50 ppm, and matured for a minimum of ten years in first-fill ex-bourbon American oak barrels.
One of the more distinctive features of Ardbeg’s production is the purifier fitted to the lyne arm of the spirit still, which encourages additional reflux and produces a lighter, more citrusy distillate than the peat level alone might suggest. It is bottled at 46% ABV and is non-chill-filtered with no added colouring.
It is one of the most widely available single malts on this list, retailing at around £50 to £60 in the UK and approximately $65 in the US.
Royal Brackla Oloroso 12 Years Old
Award: Best Single Malt Scotch 12 Year Old | 92.74 pts
Tasting Notes: Ripe peaches, black cherries, chocolate covered almonds, muscovado sugar, dark chocolate, nuttiness, and spiced, stewed fruits
Find Your Next Bottle: $66
Royal Brackla has a stronger claim to royal heritage than a lot of other distilleries in Scotland. Founded in 1812 near Nairn in the Northern Highlands, it became the first distillery ever granted a Royal Warrant, awarded by King William IV in 1833, earning it the title “The King’s Own Whisky.” Queen Victoria renewed the warrant in 1838. It is one of only three distilleries in Scotland permitted to use “Royal” in its name.
Despite that history, Royal Brackla spent most of the 20th century as a blending component. Bacardi acquired it as part of the John Dewar & Sons portfolio in 1998 and relaunched it as a single malt in 2014.
The current range, introduced in 2019 and updated to 46% ABV with natural colour from 2020, is built around sherry cask finishes. The 12 Year Old is matured in ex-bourbon casks before finishing in Oloroso sherry casks.
The distillery’s tall stills and long fermentations of around 70 to 80 hours produce a light, fruity distillate that takes well to the additional sherry influence.
It retails at around £55 to £70 in the UK and approximately $90 in the US.
Craigellachie 13 Years Old
Award: Best Single Malt Scotch 13–14 Year Old | 89.58 pts
Tasting Notes: Toasted marshmallows, fire-roasted pineapples and baked apples studded with cloves, cordite
Find Your Next Bottle: $60
Craigellachie Distillery sits at the confluence of the Spey and Fiddich rivers in the heart of Speyside, and it has been producing whisky since 1890. It was co-founded by Alexander Edward and Peter Mackie, the blender behind White Horse Scotch whisky.
Like most Speyside distilleries of that era, it spent the bulk of the 20th century supplying spirit to the blending industry rather than appearing as a single malt in its own right.
Bacardi’s John Dewar & Sons relaunched it as a single malt in 2014, with a deliberately unconventional range built around 13, 17, and 23 year age statements rather than the more common 12, 15, and 18.
One of the defining features of Craigellachie’s production is its continued use of worm tub condensers. Worm tubs give the spirit less contact with copper than modern shell-and-tube condensers, which tends to produce a heavier, more robust character. The 13 is matured in a combination of ex-bourbon and refill sherry casks and bottled at 46% ABV.
It is one of the better value bottles on this list, retailing at around £50 to £60 in the UK and approximately $60 in the US.
Glenmorangie The Lasanta 15 Years Old
Award: Best Single Malt Scotch 15 Year Old | 90.57 pts
Tasting Notes: Honeycomb, walnut, floral notes, raisin, toffee, molasses, charcoal, cinnamon, oak, dark chocolate, marmalade
Find Your Next Bottle: $48
Glenmorangie has been distilling in Tain on the Dornoch Firth in the Northern Highlands since 1843. It has been part of LVMH’s Moët Hennessy division since 2004.
The distillery is known for having the tallest pot stills in Scotland, standing at 5.14 metres, which encourage a high degree of reflux and produce a light, floral, citrus-forward distillate. Glenmorangie was also an early pioneer of cask finishing in the 1990s, a practice now widespread across the industry.
The Lasanta is the sherry-finished expression in the core range. The current 15 Year Old version, which replaced the previous 12 Year Old Lasanta as part of a broader range update, is matured in a combination of bourbon and oloroso sherry casks. It is bottled at 43% ABV. The name Lasanta comes from the Scottish Gaelic for warmth.
It is a permanent core expression and widely available, retailing at around £54 in the UK and approximately $70 to $75 in the US.
Craigellachie 17 Years Old
Award: Best Single Malt Scotch 16–17 Year Old | 94.10 pts
Tasting Notes: Smooth and mellow in flavour with rich silky notes of exotic fruits
Find Your Next Bottle: $129
The second Craigellachie to appear on this list, the 17 Year Old is produced at the same Speyside distillery using the same worm tub condensers that give the spirit its distinctively robust character.
Where the 13 shows the distillery’s heavier profile in a relatively direct form, the 17 gives that spirit four more years in cask, adding complexity and weight. It is matured in a combination of ex-bourbon and first-fill sherry casks and bottled at 46% ABV, non-chill-filtered, with natural colour.
With an IWC score of 94.10 against the 13’s 89.58, the additional maturation time appears to be doing considerable work.
The price step up from the 13 is significant, at around £100 to £130 in the UK and approximately $160 in the US, but it remains one of the few widely available 17-year-old single malt Scotches on the market.
Aultmore Madeira Cask GTR 18 Years Old
Award: Best Single Malt Scotch 18 Year Old | 91.39 pts
Find Your Next Bottle: Travel Retail
Aultmore Distillery was founded in 1896 in Keith, Speyside, and has long been one of the less visible malts in Bacardi’s John Dewar & Sons portfolio, valued primarily as a component in Dewar’s White Label blended Scotch.
It was barely seen as a single malt until Bacardi’s 2014 relaunch, and the Cask Finish Collection, launched at the TFWA Asia Pacific trade show in Singapore in June 2024, represents the distillery’s most ambitious single malt offering to date.
The collection comprises four expressions, each sharing a base maturation in refill American oak hogsheads and barrels, with a different cask finish applied to each age.
The 18 Year Old is finished in second-fill Madeira wine casks, an uncommon choice in Scotch whisky. Aultmore’s distillate is characterised as light, herbal and grassy, and the Madeira finish was selected to complement rather than overwhelm that base character. It is bottled at 46% ABV, non-chill-filtered, with natural colour, in a 50 cl bottle.
All three Aultmore expressions in this list are Global Travel Retail exclusives, meaning they are officially sold only through airport duty-free channels. The RRP is $170.
Aultmore Calvados Cask GTR 21 Years Old
Award: Best Single Malt Scotch 19–24 Year Old | 92.52 pts
Find Your Next Bottle: Travel Retail
The third expression in the Aultmore Cask Finish Collection uses a second-fill Calvados cask finish, Calvados being the apple brandy produced in the Normandy region of France. It is an unusual finishing vessel in Scotch whisky, and the choice here appears to reflect Aultmore’s natural distillate character, which already carries orchard fruit notes from its light Speyside production style.
The base maturation is the same as the rest of the collection: refill American oak hogsheads and barrels for 21 years, before the Calvados finish is applied. It is bottled at 46% ABV.
This expression replaces an earlier travel-retail Aultmore 21 Year Old that had been available since the 2014 relaunch. Like its siblings in the collection, it is a Global Travel Retail exclusive with an RRP of $250 per 50 cl, and is not formally distributed through domestic retail channels in the UK or the US.
Aultmore Oloroso Sherry Cask GTR 25 Years Old
Award: Best Single Malt Scotch 25 Year Old & Best Single Malt Scotch Overall | 95.10 pts
Find Your Next Bottle: Travel Retail
The overall Best Single Malt Scotch at the International Whisky Competition 2025 is a travel-retail exclusive available only at airport duty-free shops.
Within the Aultmore Cask Finish Collection, the 25 Year Old is the only expression finished in first-fill Oloroso sherry casks. The first-fill casks bring a more intense sherry influence to bear on a spirit that has spent 25 years developing in refill American oak hogsheads and barrels. The decision to reserve the most active cask for the oldest and most complex spirit in the range is a considered one.
Master Blender Stephanie Macleod, Bacardi’s Director of Blending, oversaw the cask selection across the entire collection. It is bottled at 46% ABV, non-chill-filtered, with natural colour, in a 50 cl bottle.
Aultmore’s role within the Bacardi portfolio gives some context to how this spirit came to exist. When Bacardi acquired John Dewar & Sons from Diageo in 1998, Aultmore was reportedly considered a critical part of the deal, given its contribution to Dewar’s White Label. The single malt range was a much later development, and the Cask Finish Collection is the most premium expression of it so far.
The RRP is $500 per 50 cl. Travelers transiting major hub airports in Europe, the Middle East and Asia are the most likely to find it on a shelf.
