It manages to compare favorably to considerably more expensive whiskies, which is the name of the game here. This one delivers the sherry flavors you’re looking for on a budget, however: Dried red fruits, toffee, cinnamon sugar, dark chocolate and the richness that sherried malt fans appreciate. Note: This isn’t the years of additional maturation/aging you’ll get from many sherry centric distilleries, but that kind of bottle will cost you quite a bit more. The standard Classic is a fine NAS single malt, but the series really shines in the Sherry Cask Finish, which receives additional maturation in oloroso sherry casks. The Classic, or Elgin Classic, is Glen Moray’s series of NAS malts, a segment that has understandably grown in its viability as the price of scotch whisky has climbed. That, and perhaps some lackluster branding, make for another great value selection-one of the cheapest ways to get a legitimate sherry cask single malt experience that is reminiscent of far more expensive malts. Glen Moray feels like one of those distilleries where anyone with a background in scotch would acknowledge they make quality whisky, and yet whisky geeks just don’t get very excited about those brands. Glen Moray Elgin Classic Sherry Cask Finish Region: Speyside You’d be hard pressed to find a better quality single malt in this price bracket. Overall, Speyburn 10 delivers a light and fruity profile with notes of apple and orange, with soft and sweet malt on the palate, some of the grassy/herbaceous quality typical of Speyside, and faint wisps of smoke. Another odd aspect, especially for a Speyside malt, is that there’s even a bit of smoke presence to the profile here, which isn’t as typical of the region. For one, it’s aged in both used bourbon and partially in ex sherry casks, making this an unusually affordable way to get some sherry cask aging into the mix, although it is on the subtle side. Speyburn 10 is an easygoing, accessible malt that has a few unique things going for it. This brand in particular may have saved a few bucks by reducing its proof point from 43% ABV (86 proof) a few years ago, but when it remains a mere $35 on the shelf, that can easily be forgiven. Speyburn has long represented one of the best and most underrated values in Speyside malt whisky, and it’s impressive how they’ve managed to keep their SRPs down over the years, even as so many other brands have seen their price tags balloon. You may also want to check out our guide to the classic scotch whisky regions, and the types of malts they tend to produce. So let’s go ahead and answer the question: What are the best pure single malt scotches for less than $50? I’ll arrange these in approximate order of price. Most of them will have to wait until we compile a list of the best malts under $100. So too is it difficult to work many wine barrel-finished (sherry, port, etc.) spirits into this list, because these extra maturation steps also tend to make the resulting malts more expensive. You’re not going to find much of The Macallan here, in other words. You should expect to see a few non-age-stated (NAS) single malts on this list, because in 2021 dollars, even the flagship age-stated malts of many scotch distilleries now cost more than $50. single grain scotch whiskies, check out our guide here. That means no blends of whiskies from multiple distilleries-even popular, all-malt brands such as Monkey Shoulder, which is a fine pick in general but not what we’re discussing here. This post is focusing exclusively on single malt scotch whisky, which means malt whisky from Scotland that comes from a single distillery. In this post, we’ll do our best to help you find the best bang for your buck, when it comes to single malt scotch whisky. There’s one more obvious place to go, and it’s a tough one-the best values in single malt scotch whisky, a category notorious for its inflated price tags in the U.S. We determined the best values in rye whiskey today, as well as the best values in aged rum. There’s our guide to the best bourbon for less than $30, for instance, or a similar piece on the best bourbon under $60. We’ve already published a handful of overarching pieces on the concept of “value” as it exists in the spirits world. Check out every entry in the series to date. Cocktail Queries is a Paste series that examines and answers basic, common questions that drinkers may have about mixed drinks, cocktails and spirits.
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