9 best whiskies from around the world

Denmark had to wait nearly half a century before nine friends (a doctor, a chef, a butcher, a teacher, a helicopter pilot and four engineers) founded Stauning in 2005.

Using locally grown barley and rye and small fire-heated pot stills, Stauning produced a whisky that ultimately reflects the warmth and appeal of the Danish terroir. A combination of single malt and malted rye whisky, it possesses a subtle fruity if not floral flavour saddled to an almost boundless smoothness, which makes it incredibly easy to sip.

The Japanese are old hands at distilling whisky. They’ve been at it since the 1920s, and they’ve learnt a bit, as you can tell by sampling Tenjaku whisky from Japan’s top peach and grape producing region overlooking Mount Fuji.

Underground springs that produce a slightly alkaline water are used, which gives the whisky a smoothness and purity. Master blender Kenji Watanabe uses to create a mellow, but light whisky with pear and dried fruit flavours and a prolonged and subtly spicy finish. Try it as part of an oyuwari – simply 60ml of whisky, 40ml of boiling water and a few fresh mint leaves.

Goa is probably as far away from the ancestral Highland home of malt whisky as you can get. Yet whisky whisky-loving businessman Paul P John hit upon the idea of creating a single malt in India using native ingredients.

He built a distillery in tropical Goa, using naturally filtered water and barley from northern India, and created an award-winning unpeated (the barley is dried with hot air rather than peat smoke) single malt whisky. It combines enormous fruit and spice-filled flavours – think orange, vanilla, cinnamon and cocoa – along with a honeyed smoothness and a wonderfully relaxed finish.

Nomad outland whisky is created in Speyside, Scotland. It is aged for six years in bourbon casks before being moved to Spain, where it continues to mature in Pedro Ximénez sherry casks in the historic González Byass cellars in Jerez.

The end result is a beautifully smooth whisky with dried fruit and honey notes that are complemented by the very distinctive sherry bouquet. It’s a whisky which will really does give you the best of both worlds.

Ireland can boast a history of whiskey-making that rivals Scotland. Indeed, it was once the most popular type of whisky in the world before a long period of decline saw most of its famous distilleries close. But now McConnell’s – once one of Belfast’s biggest names – has been reborn, and a brand that dates back to 1776 is available again.

Like the Nomad Outland whisky, this is matured in sherry casks, although oloroso ones rather than Pedro Ximénez, giving the whisky a rich and sophisticated sherry-accented flavour that helps to highlight the complex notes of dried fruit, cocoa and spice. It’s one that lingers on the tongue.

Distilled in the village of Abergwyngregyn near the famous Aber Falls, this is the first whisky to have been made in North Wales since the early 1900s.

Created using local Welsh ingredients, this award-winning whisky is packed with complex and layered notes of vanilla, dried fruit, salted nuts and cocoa, along with the extra dimension that maturing in sherry casks brings.

Enjoy it, gently sipped by the fireside or be bold and use it (as the website suggests) to spice up a dish of crispy potatoes and glazed sprouts.

France, home of cognac, armagnac and calvados, is turning its hand to an even more traditional spirit – spelt whisky. An ancient type of wheat, spelt, was all the rage along the Mediterranean coast about a millennium ago.

But now Alpine distillers Domaine des Hautes Glaces has brought this ancient grain into the 21st century with a whisky that exudes southern French charm. It has citrus and seasonal fruit flavours allied to cognac notes, and the wholly individual fresh cut grass and orchard flavouring supplied by the spelt. It’s costly, but it’s not a taste that you’re likely to experience anywhere else.

Nothing is more American than a bourbon whiskey, and this Bulleit bourbon frontier whiskey from its traditional home, Kentucky, is a unique and appealing blend of rye, corn, and barley malt, along with special strains of yeast and pure limestone filtered water.

The high rye content gives it its characteristic spicy tang along with comforting notes of honey, vanilla and nuts. Inspired by a 150-year-old family recipe, it’s sold in a traditional bottle that wouldn’t look out of place in a Clint Eastwood Western.

The Oxford Artisan Distillery’s rye whisky easy ryder is an organic English whisky that proudly supports biodiversity and uses researched heritage grains that flourished in medieval times. It’s a blend of spirits from eight American oak barrels of varying character, along with one aged in a cask formerly used for Portugal's moscatel roxo wine.

What you get from that fascinating mixture is a rye whisky that’s as smooth as a custard tart and as mellow as a ripe apple. And it's apple, lightly stewed perhaps, that you can taste on the palate along with honey and vanilla and hints of spice and pepper.