Throughout 2024 purchasers at online retailer The Whisky List (TWL) have been rating whiskies and the team has now compiled those ratings, over 67,000 of them, to reveal its top whiskies of 2024.
In addition to the highest ratings TWL has combined its data, including searches, clicks, reviews and purchases with data from its partner retailers and The Whisky Show to compile its list.
Emma Cookson, TWL’s Whisky Educator, told The Shout: “This list is always one of the most enlightening parts of the year for us because we always have a perception of what is popular, whether we’re a whisky drinker noticing trends or a retailer trying to gauge what consumers are looking for.
“These whiskies are objective representations of consumers deciding with their wallets, their ratings, and their searches.
“[Last year] like for many retailers was a challenging year. Cost of living naturally has affected premium whisky sales. Most notably customers shifted to purchasing their old favourites like your classic 12-year-old Scotch, which delivers on the simple promise of quality meets value.
“We’re starting to see some demand return for other categories like Irish, Japanese and Aussie whiskies and it will be interesting to see if that trend carries forward into 2025 but we will have to wait and see.”
In compiling the list TWL has also revealed some of the stats for the last year, which saw 17.5 million whiskies viewed throughout the calendar year, with each visitor, on average, viewing 78.2 whiskies.
So which whiskies made TWL’s Top 20 whiskies of 2024?
Below is the list, with comments from the TWL team:
20. GlenDronach 21yo Parliament – Moving up a few spots from the previous year’s list, the Glendronach 21yo still holds up the rear compared to its younger age statement siblings. With its rich sherry cask maturation and impressive age, it will continue to be a fixture on this list for many years to come, and who knows, maybe next year it might be able to claw its way over the other Glendronach releases!
19. Bunnahabhain 18yo – Just squeezing into a top 20 placement this year, the Bunnahabhain 18yo is another one that finds its way onto this list year after year. The whisky that started it all for the team at TWL (no seriously, we probably wouldn’t have been importing whisky if it wasn’t for the Bunna 18) this one holds a special place in our hearts and apparently yours too!
18. GlenDronach 18yo Allardice – Two 18yo whiskies back to back? It truly was the year of the age statement, and while the Allardice (named for the founder of Glendronach Distillery) managed to score a higher placement than the 21yo, it’s certainly not the highest-ranking whisky from GD on the list.
17. Yamazaki 12yo 100th Anniversary Edition – The Suntory company celebrated 100 years since the founding of their original distillery, and with that came a whole new batch of Yamazaki and Hakushu bottle labels. Honouring 100 years since the founding of Yamazaki Distillery, this release quickly became a collectable.
16. Ledaig 18yo – The overachiever of the Tobermory family, the Ledaig 18yo is a staple for many whisky lovers’ cabinets. Not only is this whisky a bang-for-buck age statement dram, but it’s also one of the most accessible peated offerings at this age.
15. Ardbeg Uigeadail – Is there a marriage more perfect than peat and sherry? It’s hard to argue in favour of anything, especially if you’ve sipped on an Ardbeg Uigedail before! This may in fact be the first time we’ve seen the classic 10yo miss out on the list altogether, but the Uigedail is still holding up the team with an otherworldly salty fruitiness that is absolutely deserving of a top 20 placement.
14. Overeem Floc Shots No. 5 For Whisky Lovers Australia – Would it be a Top 50 list without an Overeem? I think not. And as usual the Overeem Floc Shots bottling dominates with its rich and chewy flavour profile. An oddity compared to all the others on the list, this bottling celebrates the parts of a whisky that are often left behind for aesthetic reasons. Number 5 marks the last of the Floc series, but it definitely won’t be the last Overeem to feature on our top 50 lists!
13. Bunnahabhain Feis Ile 2024 14yo Ruby Port Cask Finish – This might be the first time a Feis exclusive bottling has landed in the Top 50 list and it’s no surprise that this delectable Ruby Port finished whisky was the one to do it. The entry level Feis bottling from 2024 is an exceptional showcase of the iconic team that Bunnahabhain and Sherry/Port Casks make (its accompanying bottlings were also fortified wine highlights, a 19yo Moine Maderia and a 23yo Triple Sherry cask, that were perhaps a little too costly to make the list).
12. Redbreast 12yo Cask Strength Irish Pot Still Whiskey – This Irish whiskey is a repeat showing on these top lists and it’s not hard to see why once you get a taste. Beating out the regular strength edition, the Redbreast 12yo Cask Strength is always the top performing Irish whiskey year after year without any other contender getting close! If you’re not a fan of an Irish dram, this might be the one whiskey that can change your mind.
11. Yamazaki 12yo – Just missing out on a top 10 placement, the Japanese distilleries have had an exceptional year. And with the slow trickle of age statement releases coming back after a long period of non-existent stocks, we’re sure to see them rise back up the ranks and hopefully become more affordable moving forward into 2025.
10. GlenDronach 12yo Original – It wouldn’t be the top 10 pointy end without a Glendronach! Year after year this 12 year old whisky makes its mark on our lists, and others just like it all over the world, and for good reason. The entry level release from Glendronach Distillery, the 12 year old was many people’s first foray into whisky and holds a special place in our hearts (and our whisky cabinets) to this very day.
9. GlenDronach 15yo – Side by side with its younger counterpart (and just eeking a few popularity points more), the 15 Year Old revival shows why it was so highly sought after during the time it was discontinued. Now readily available, this Glendronach has beaten both its older and younger core range siblings to come out on top as the favourite age statement GD.
8. Lagavulin 16yo – Normally this iconic single malt from Lagavulin places higher on the list every year (with it bring crowned the top spot in last year’s list!) but sadly their dwindling quantities and rising price make them hard to access and even harder to afford. But it still remains one of the most beloved whiskies despite these hurdles and will likely not be leaving the favourites list anytime soon.
7. Laphroaig 10yo Cask Strength Batch 016 – It’s hard to reach for a bottle of the classic Laphroaig 10yo when the cask strength batches exist, and it seems our whisky members agree! Sneaking into the top 10, the latest Laphroaig cask strength batch was a favourite from this polarising distillery, leaving its core range sibling in the dust (and out of the top 50 list entirely!).
6. Decadent Drinks WhiskySponge 2013 Ben Nevis 10yo Australian Exclusive Single Cask – The second Australian exclusive release from WhiskySponge, this Ben Nevis took whisky lovers (and cat lovers) by storm. A classic Ben Nevis profile accentuated by spending a brief time in a peated quarter cask, it hit all the right notes for Sponge and for the team at The Elysian Bar who it was bottled in honour of. And with a label featuring co-owners Yao and Kelvin, and Yao’s cat Anchovy, who wouldn’t love this bottle?
5. Ledaig Sinclair Series Rioja Finish – A mainstay of this list since it landed all the way back in 2022, the Ledaig Sinclair encapsulates everything we love about this peaty spirit from Tobermory. Lots of smoke, red wine cask fruitiness, and a crackin’ price point? No debate, this is one of the best whiskies to come out of the distillery.
4. Bunnahabhain 12 Cask Strength 2023 Release – Another unsurprising addition to the list this year, with the 12yo Cask Strength edition showing just how good core range Bunna can be with a natural cask strength. While there won’t be a 12yo Cask Strength next year (instead we’re being treated to a phenomenal 21yo Cask Strength!) those who fell in love with this limited release can look forward to more batches in the future – and possibly some more varied ages as well!
3. GlenDronach Cask Strength Batch 10 – The top ranking Glendronach on our list, this is the first time one of the Cask Strength batches has pipped a core age statement to the post! But it’s not surprising when it comes to the Batch 10, this was one of the most popular bottles at the shows for 2024.
2. Remnant Golden Fleece Australian Single Malt Tasmanian Whisky – It’s no surprise that the Golden Fleece ended up in the number 2 spot on our list given how accessible, affordable, and downright delicious this Tassie dram is! And with everything in the Remnant warehouse creeping over that 10 years and older age range, it’s no wonder this $99 bottle is so popular.
1. Laphroaig 10 Sherry Finish – In a year of change for the distributor of Laphroaig, the real winners were peaty whisky lovers. We saw incredible prices for all the Laphroaig range from the young to the old age statements (congrats to those who picked up Laphroaig 25) and every fun release in-between. But from all of those incredible options it was the Sherry Finish that came out on top, becoming our most popular whisky of 2024! And who could blame it? The classic and beloved 10 Year Old Laphroaig finished in Oloroso sherry casks to beef up the sweetness? Undeniably delicious.
