Raise A Dram: 5 Classic Scotch Whiskies to Celebrate Burns Night 2025
Burns Night is celebrated at the end of January each year. Scotland’s unofficial national day celebrates all things Scottish and is centred around the life and works of the legendary poet and wordsmith Robert Burns.
The first Burns Night is said to have occurred in 1801, less than five years after Burns’ death. This saw a group of friends, family and contemporaries of Burns gather on his birthday (January 25) in his home village of Alloway in Ayrshire to read his poetry and discuss his works, including the seminal piece Address to A Haggis.
Rumour has it that the inaugural evening included a haggis supper with the now-customary neeps and tatties (swede and potato to the uninitiated) and copious amounts of Scotch whisky. The gathering grew in number each year to the point that now, over 20 years later, Burns Night is celebrated around the globe annually.
With a bewildering number of Scotch whiskies on the market and an ever-increasing batch of new craft distilleries adding to this, choosing what to select as an accompaniment to your haggis can be bewildering. Therefore, our tip is to return to basics and select some all-time classics for your celebrations.
Like the sound of this? Here are a few suggestions.
The Classic Blend
Johnnie Walker 12 Years Old Black Label
No Scotch whisky sells more than Johnnie Walker. It outsells its nearest rival (Ballantine’s) by over two-to-one and shifts a staggering 22 million cases yearly. That is a lot of whisky.
One of the foundations of this success is the Black Label, initially launched in 1909 by John Walker & Sons. This and the Red Label sell the most of any expressions in the range.
Johnnie Walker Black Label features an eclectic mix of whiskies, all aged for at least 12 years, and from all four corners of Scotland. It remains a firm favourite.
Expect balanced notes of vanilla, honey and fairground toffee apple. These mingle with further notes of poached pear, butterscotch and cinnamon. Soft, sweet peat smoke wraps everything up, adding a superb extra dimension to proceedings.
The Speyside
The Balvenie 12 Years Old Doublewood
The Balvenie is located on the outskirts of Dufftown, the unofficial capital of the Speyside region in Scotland. The town is home to six distilleries – the others being Glenfiddich, Kininvie, Dufftown, Mortlach and Glendullan – which is some feat given its modest size. The Balvenie has a long and storied history and remains owned by the same family who founded it in 1892.that
The 12 Years Old Doublewood is one of the all-time great whiskies from the region. It is perfect for sipping and savouring. The depth of flavour created by maturation in both ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks (hence the Doublewood name) is excellent.
Notes of vanilla, toffee and fresh coconut lead the way and are complemented by peach, marzipan and nutmeg. Hints of cocoa powder and sultana are also evident, making it a delicious all-rounder.
The Highlander
Dalwhinnie 15 Years Old
Founded in 1897, the Dalwhinnie distillery is located within the imposing and mountainous Cairngorms National Park, making it one of the remotest distilleries in Scotland. It sits at the highest elevation of any single malt distillery at 326 metres (1070 feet) above sea level and is home to the UK’s coldest weather station. This averages an annual maximum temperature of just 10.2°C (50.4°F).
Dalwhinnie 15 Years Old has been around since the mid-1980s and was a founding member of owner Diageo’s iconic Classic Malts series. A distinct malty note gives the whisky structure, and everything else builds around this.
Expect honeycomb, baked apple and juicy sultanas mixed with muscovado sugar, candied lemon peel and oak. Hints of earthy ginger root and a pinch of cocoa powder round things off nicely.
The Sherried One
The Macallan 12 Years Old Sherry Oak
The Macallan is one of the most popular Scotch single malt whiskies and regularly ranks in the top five for world sales. The Speyside distillery, one of the largest and most groundbreaking in Scotland, is highly regarded and a favourite among whisky collectors and investors.
It is now regarded as one of the premium single malts on the market and was also James Bond’s favourite Scotch during the Daniel Craig era.
The 12 Years Old Sherry Oak is an iconic single malt and undergoes 100% maturation in ex-sherry casks sourced from southern Spain. Expect rich and bold notes of toffee, plum, raisin and prune. These sit alongside further notes of caramel, toasted almond, hazelnut praline and milk chocolate with hints of crystallised ginger, warming wood spice and candied orange peel.
The Islay
Laphroaig 10 Years Old
There are not many more evocative flavours in the world of spirits than peat smoke. Laphroaig is the leading Scotch single malt in this category by some distance. The famous distillery’s home is Islay, the renowned whisky island at the southern tip of the Hebrides. This is known for, and dominated by, the production of the peated style, with 10 distilleries currently in operation and a couple more in the planning stage.
The 10 Years Old is an absolute classic and widely available. It forms the cornerstone of Laphroaig’s core range and shows off its bold, heavily peated nature with style.
Creamy vanilla custard and milk chocolate sweetness combat the punchy, acrid smoke – this has a sooty bonfire ash quality that evolves into drying seaweed and damp moss. Some late green chilli pepper heat accentuates this. Superb, but not for the faint-hearted.
