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The 2026 Scottish Whisky Awards Finalists Have Been Revealed – Scotch Whisky News

The 2026 Scottish Whisky Awards Finalists Have Been Revealed

The wait is over! The finalists for the 8th Annual Scottish Whisky Awards have officially been announced. Following an intensive judging process, 41 distillers and companies and more than 130 Scotch whiskies have secured a place on the 2026 shortlist.  This year’s finalists represent the strength and diversity of Scotland’s world-renowned whisky industry, recognising outstanding achievements across both our Business and Taste Awards.

Congratulations to everyone who has made the shortlist! From outstanding Scotch whiskies to the businesses and people helping drive the industry forward, the 2026 finalists represent some of the very best of Scotland’s whisky sector. Now, there’s just one question left…

Who will be taking home a Scottish Whisky Award this November?

Discover the full shortlist and see who is in the running for 2026.

FINALISTS

The winners of the 8th Annual Scottish Whisky Awards will be revealed on Thursday 26 November 2026 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Glasgow Central. Bringing together distillers, producers, suppliers and professionals from across the sector, the Scottish Whisky Awards is an opportunity to celebrate another exceptional year for Scotland’s whisky industry.

📅 Thursday 26 November 2026
📍 DoubleTree by Hilton, Glasgow Central

Tickets and tables are available to book.

BOOK TICKETS HERE

Inchdairnie (Strathenry) 10 Year Old 2016 Unicorn for The Whisky Barrel – Scotch Whisky News

Inchdairnie (Strathenry) 10 Year Old 2016 Unicorn for TWB

£49.00 GBP

Tasting Notes

Nose Ripe banana, pineapple, vanilla, demerara sugar, and toasted coconut with hints of citrus zest, sweet malt, and warming oak spice.
Palate Rich and tropical, revealing flavours of grilled pineapple, banana bread, caramel, honeyed cereals, rum-soaked fruit, cinnamon, and creamy vanilla.
Finish Long and warming, with lingering tropical fruit sweetness, soft oak spice, coconut, brown sugar, and gentle rum character.

InchDairnie (Strathenry) 10 Year Old 2016 is an innovative and vibrant Lowland single malt Scotch whisky, selected and bottled exclusively for The Whisky Barrel as part of the acclaimed Unicorn Series. Distilled in 2016 and bottled in July 2026, this exceptional single cask has matured in a first-fill Jamaican rum barrel (#1049), producing just 184 bottles at a natural 55.4% ABV. Bottled at natural cask strength, with natural colour and no chill-filtration, it offers a bold and distinctive take on one of Scotland’s most exciting modern distilleries.

Distilled at InchDairnie Distillery, this whisky is released under the Strathenry name. Strathenry is the name used by InchDairnie for its unpeated single malt spirit when it is traded or exchanged with independent bottlers and blenders, making it a name increasingly recognised by enthusiasts of independent Scotch whisky. This release showcases the distillery’s modern, fruit-forward spirit alongside the vibrant influence of a first-fill Jamaican rum barrel. Tropical fruits, ripe banana, pineapple, vanilla, demerara sugar, toasted coconut, and warming spice combine beautifully with the whisky’s fresh cereal character to create a dram that is both exotic and remarkably well balanced.

As part of The Whisky Barrel’s exclusive Unicorn Series, this release celebrates imagination, craftsmanship, and Scotland’s rich whisky heritage through distinctive artwork and carefully selected single casks. The label depicts a unicorn arriving on a sun-drenched Caribbean island aboard a traditional tall ship, a playful nod to the whisky’s remarkable Jamaican rum cask maturation and the adventurous spirit behind every Unicorn bottling.

  • 10 year old Lowland single malt Scotch whisky distilled at InchDairnie Distillery and released under the Strathenry name
  • Strathenry is InchDairnie’s name for its unpeated spirit supplied to independent bottlers and blenders
  • Selected and bottled exclusively for The Whisky Barrel
  • Matured in a single first-fill Jamaican rum barrel (#1049)
  • Distilled 2016, bottled July 2026
  • Limited to just 184 bottles worldwide
  • Bottled at 55.4% ABV with natural cask strength, natural colour, and no chill-filtration
  • Features exclusive Unicorn Series artwork of a unicorn arriving on a Caribbean island aboard a traditional tall ship

The InchDairnie (Strathenry) 10 Year Old 2016 Unicorn is a wonderfully adventurous single malt, combining the innovative spirit of InchDairnie with the vibrant tropical influence of first-fill Jamaican rum cask maturation. Rich, fruity, and full of personality, this exclusive The Whisky Barrel Unicorn Series bottling is an exceptional choice for collectors and whisky enthusiasts seeking something truly original.

The Distillery

Inchdairnie Distillery, founded by Ian Palmer in 2015 and located in the bustling town of Glenrothes, Fife, Scotland, is a state-of-the-art whisky distillery renowned for its innovative approach to whisky production. As a modern establishment, Inchdairnie initially focused on crafting premium spirits for several blended malt whiskies, utilizing advanced distilling techniques with minimal initial fanfare. Dedicated to pioneering new methods, the distillery experiments with diverse ingredients such as rye and oats, enhancing the complexity and uniqueness of its whiskies. While Inchdairnie plans to unveil its first official single malt whisky in 2029, it has already made significant strides by releasing single cask expressions under the Strathenry label. Among these, the TheWhiskyBarrel.com exclusive Viking 2 stands out as one of the first Strathenry single malts, celebrated for its distinctive flavor profile and limited availability. Inchdairnie Distillery continues to attract whisky enthusiasts and connoisseurs with its commitment to quality and experimentation, positioning itself as a forward-thinking leader in Scotland’s vibrant whisky industry. Whether through innovative blends or exclusive single cask releases, Inchdairnie Distillery is shaping the future of Scottish whisky, offering unparalleled experiences for both seasoned aficionados and curious newcomers alike.

Meet ‘Dol’ – Isle of Harris Distillery News

At just twenty-eight, Domhnall Macrae is already playing his part in a new generation of island whisky-makers here at the Isle of Harris Distillery.

Known to almost everyone locally as ‘Dol’, he is one of our Harris distillers, a keen shinty player, and part of a young homegrown team working alongside Thomas Macrae, Rebekah Morrison and our head distiller, Norman Ian Mackay, to make whisky here in the heart of our island community.

In our new short film, we follow Dol through a typical day at the distillery as he reflects on what it means to have the opportunity to build a skilled career without having to leave Harris behind.

Today, Dol and his fellow distillers are helping to shape the future of whisky-making in Harris, while building futures of their own.

WATCH THE FILM

Knockando 2009 17 Year Old, Carn Mor Strictly Limited – Tyndrum Whisky News

Speyside · 17 Year Old

Knockando 2009

£118

47.5% · 70cl · 168 bottles

A 17 Year Old Speyside single malt matured in a hogshead and bottled as part of the Càrn Mòr Strictly Limited range. Rich and intense, with coffee cake, chocolate and burnt sugar.

View Bottle →

TyndrumWhisky.com
The Green Welly Stop
Tyndrumwhisky, Tyndrum
Crianlarich, Perthshire FK20 8RY
United Kingdom

Whiski Room Private Whisky Tastings – Scotch Whisky News

🥃 Private Whisky Tastings

Add something truly memorable to your event. Our expert-led whisky tastings let you and your guests sample Scotland’s finest drams, complete with stories and history behind each pour.

  • Tastings for up to 14 people in our dedicated Tasting Room
  • Up to 30 people in The Scotch Room

We can even bring the experience to you with offsite tastings.

Click Here To Book Your Tasting

Cask Trade unveils personalised whisky bottling service – Scotch Whisky News

CASK TRADE BOTTLING UNVEILS PERSONALISED BOTTLING SERVICES WITH GIFTING OPPORTUNITY FOR CHRISTMAS

Cask Trade has long supported cask bottlings for private clients and independent bottlers. However, with increasing demand for partial cask bottlings and smaller runs, Cask Trade Bottling has introduced a new ‘ready to bottle’ bespoke service, allowing clients to commission their own label for bottle runs starting from 30 bottles per order, without having to buy a full cask. To celebrate the new service, Cask Trade Bottling have launched a festive campaign which will deliver bespoke bottles of Speyside 2015 to clients, ready for gifting in December.

A Gift Worth Raising a Glass To

The new service invites clients to personalise a premium single malt Scotch whisky with either their own artwork or a considered written message – an opportunity to transform a fine bottle into a genuinely personal statement for loved ones and close friends, or into a distinctive branded gift for clients, colleagues and business partners. Each bottling draws from a single, identifiable cask: an 11-year-old single malt from a Speyside distillery, matured in a bourbon barrel, bottled at 46% ABV in a 700ml bottle, with tasting notes of honey, apple, floral honeysuckle, citrus, vanilla and toffee.

Founder and CEO of Cask Trade, Simon Aron, says: “Whisky has always been about more than the liquid in the glass – it’s about provenance, occasion and story. Whether it’s a private client marking a family celebration or a business wanting to put its own brand on a premium gift for its best clients, this service lets them create something no one else will ever own: a bottle carrying their own artwork or words, tied to a single cask.”

Two Ways to Personalise

Customers can choose between two personalisation options:

–    Personalised Artwork: Customers can bring their creative vision to life by supplying their own branding or artwork to be printed on the top front section of the label.
–    Personalised Message: Customers write their own greeting to be printed on Cask Trade’s pre-designed festive label template.

Perfect For Client Gifting and Corporate Branding

The Personalised Artwork option is equally suited to businesses seeking a distinctive, branded gift for the festive season. Companies can apply their own logo, corporate artwork or campaign design to the label, turning a single-cask Scotch whisky into a memorable and prestigious gift for clients, partners and colleagues – a more considered alternative to conventional corporate hampers.

The Personalised Message option offers a simpler route for businesses that wish to print a seasonal greeting from the company on Cask Trade’s festive template, ready to send across a wider client or staff list.

How It Works

The ordering process follows five simple steps:
1.    Select an option – choose between personalised artwork or a personalised message.
2.    Send personalisation – submit the chosen artwork or written message to the Cask Trade Bottling team.
3.    Confirm – sign off and lock in the final label design.
4.    Receive – bottles are delivered ahead of the festive period.
5.    Enjoy and gift – bottles are ready to give to clients, colleagues, friends or family.

Orders can be placed by emailing bottling@casktrade.com or calling +44 (0)20 3746 3030. For more information, visit the website.

Acquiring a Bottling

Bottles are priced at £50 each, or £300 per case of six, plus VAT, inclusive of delivery and standard label printing. As each release is drawn from a single cask, orders are supplied in full cases of six bottles only, with a minimum commission of 30 bottles (five cases) – a scale well suited both to private clients building a family collection and to businesses stocking a client gifting or corporate entertaining programme for the season.

Orders must be placed before September 25th to ensure delivery by December 4th 2026.

Beyond the Festive Season

While the service launches with a festive theme, Cask Trade Bottling has confirmed that the core commissioning service is not confined to Christmas. Ready to bottle whisky is now permanently available on the Cask Trade stocklist, allowing clients to select their preferred liquid and create a bespoke bottling without having to buy a full cask or wait decades for liquid maturation. This allows personalised bottling for any occasion beyond festive celebrations, such as significant birthdays, weddings, anniversaries and births, as well as for corporate occasions including product launches, staff recognition, client appreciation events and anniversaries of the business itself. The Cask Trade Bottling team supports at every stage from liquid selection, through to design support and final product delivery.

ABOUT CASK TRADE

Cask Trade was set up by Simon Aron in 2018, born from his personal experiences of buying casks as a passionate whisky collector for more than 20 years.
Having found cask ownership difficult to navigate with few reputable companies operating, he envisioned creating a marketplace that made buying and selling casks transparent, open, and honest.
Cask Trade has grown from strength to strength, building its success on several core values:
•    Stockists, not brokers – Cask Trade own all its stock, giving buyers a 100% transactional guarantee and the peace of mind that all casks have been through stringent quality checks.
•    Market-leading stock list – since 2018, Cask Trade has represented over 170 distilleries across the world of whisky, rum, Cognac and Armagnac.
•    End-to-end support – Cask Trade nurtures client relationships beyond the point of sale and offers full cask management, sampling, re-gauging, and multiple exit options when customers come to sell their cask.
•    Trust and transparency – The company’s casks are held in the best HMRC bonded warehouses, regularly visited and approved by Cask Trade whisky masters. All stock holdings have a complete paper trail.
•    Expert team – above all, the Cask Trade team are passionate about cask ownership and strive to help clients achieve their goals, whether they are looking to buy, sell or bottle their casks.
Alongside cask sale and ownership, Cask Trade offers other unique services which elevate client experience and cask exit when the time is right:

Cask Trade Warehouse

In 2025, Cask Trade opened its own bonded warehouse. The unit is situated in Speyside, Scotland, and has the capacity for up to 25,000 casks. Clients can now book onto open days to visit the warehouse, see where their cask is stored, and sample directly from their cask or taste an indicative sample in the custom-built tasting room.

Auction Your Cask 

Auction Your Cask is the world’s first dedicated online cask auction site. With four auctions a year, clients as well as the public can either submit a cask to sell or bid on other casks with 0% seller fees and an agreed reserve.

Recognition

Acknowledgement for the achievements of Cask Trade has been recognised by the FT1000 when the business was ranked as one of the fastest-growing companies in Europe; listed in The Sunday Times Hundred fastest-growing private companies in Britain and named among the UK’s most innovative new businesses’ by StartUps 100 Index. CEO and Founder Simon Aron and Director Colin Hampden-White have also been listed again in the Spear’s 500 Top Recommended Whisky Advisors 2025.

www.casktrade.com

SPEY 8 Year Old Single Cask #1668 The Whisky Shop Exclusive – Scotch Whisky News

SPEY 8 YEAR OLD SINGLE CASK #1668

An intriguing, limited bottling from the late Speyside (aka SPEY) Distillery, selected exclusively for The Whisky Shop by the SPEY and TWS teams. The distillery officially closed in May 2025, having quietly stopped production in 2024. While they are planning to relocate, they will operate under a different name and because of this all the whisky produced at Speyside Distillery up to 2025 is now classed as coming from a lost distillery.

Unusually, the bottling is a marriage of two single casks, one a fully Sauternes cask matured eight-year-old and the other a peated 13-year-old matured in an ex-bourbon cask. The result combines vibrant fruit and spice with aromatic, surprisingly biting mainland smoke. One of just 350 bottles, presented at cask strength of 58.3% abv without artificial colour or chill filtration.

Vanilla buttercream, lime curd and herbal heather honey with just a lick of fragrant smoke on the nose – a little muted at cask strength but more expressive with water. Poached pears, kiwi conserve, tinned pineapple and candied lime zest on the slightly viscous palate. There’s a musky, savoury edge to the sweetness, a good punch of spice, and crackling, slightly nutty smoke. Pleasantly sour on the finish, with kiwi skins and fresh lime outlasting the soft smoke.

£79 | £71.10 PREMIUM MEMBER

DISCOVER SPEY ❯

 

Information: KILKERRAN 16 – Scotch Whisky News

KILKERRAN 16

46% ABV

NOSE It begins with a herbal note of tobacco & tomato leaf, followed by fruity aromas of rhubarb, blackberries & orange.

PALATE Notes of chocolate mousse and Medjool dates are revealed on the palate alongside brown sugar and blackcurrants.

FINISH This ends with refreshing mint leaf, salted raisin & hazelnut dark chocolate and a touch of ash.

UK RRP £76

EXPLORE THE MACALLAN ELEGANT GLASSWARE COLLECTION – Scotch Whisky News

THE MACALLAN GLASSWARE

EXPLORE OUR ELEGANT GLASSWARE COLLECTION

Discover The Macallan glassware and barware, crafted from the finest materials and thoughtfully designed to transform every pour into a ritual of appreciation and sophistication.

DISCOVER

Whisky Wednesday Reviews Signatory Macallan 18 Year Old, 100 Proof – Scotch Whisky News

Signatory Macallan 18 Year Old, 100 Proof, 57.1%.

The VIDEO

Why would you ever pay more than £350 for a bottle of Macallan 18 Year Old when this is available? Signatory have been doing the Lord’s work when it comes to making Macallan more affordable and available.

A fully sherry cask matured Speyside (M) whisky that has been bottled at 100 proof, or 57.1% ABV.

The nose on this intoxicating and takes me back to my first ever experience of Macallan 18 Year Old. It’s drenched in chocolate orange, raisins, toffee, dark honey, and a whole host of sticky sweet things that we all started to love Macallan for.

Signatory need no additional praise from me, the love is there and it is strong across nearly all of their releases. This is a incredible point to access what is a great whisky without having to pay a premium for no particular reason.

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