It can sometimes feel like whisky is a closed shop. Those who like a drop of the amber nectar enter its world wholeheartedly, learning about single malts, blends, copper stills, sherry casks and more from the deeply passionate craftspeople that make the industry tick.
Those whose experience stretches to sniffing cynically at a friend’s dram see it as a snobbish world, full of men in smoking jackets sitting on leather chairs older than the British Empire, pretending to like the drink they have in their hand.
The misconceptions surrounding whisky are frustrating: it’s a drink that anyone can enjoy. It’s said that there’s at least one whisky for everyone, and with a rapidly growing number of distillers from different countries producing a wider range of flavour profiles than ever before, we subscribe to that claim.
Speaking of subscription, one easy way of entering the whisky world is through a whisky subscription box. A luxurious “try before you buy”, these boxes (or single bottle deliveries) give you a chance to really explore whatever whisk(e)y you fancy, from Scotland to Japan via Kentucky.
No need to enter a whisky bar, drenched in sweat, trying to remember the name of a distillery you looked up online that sounds like it produces nice stuff: now you can enjoy and learn about the world of whisky from the comfort of your own home (leather chair optional).
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Ahead of this year’s World Whisky Day (21 May), we set aside a few hours for dedicated, serious research – and a day to recover – and put together a list of the best whisky subscriptions out there, from premium collections to pouched drams. Slàinte Mhath!
The best whisky subscription boxes for 2022 are: