With a new venue this year, the historic Royal Scots Club’s atmospheric Underground Bar hosted the 26th annual Scottish Field Readers’ Whisky Challenge, where our nine readers and whisky judges sampled 40 of Scotland’s whiskies.
It’s always a delight to talk with our readers as they sip their way through a rather daunting number of whiskies. Some come with preconceptions about which kinds of whiskies they like and are pleasantly surprised to discover more about their own palate while others reconfirm their favourite flavour profiles with every dram they sip.
The Scottish Field Readers’ Whisky Challenge has established itself as an important landmark on the Scotch whisky calendar. It has even helped launch careers in the drinks industry.
As the beating heart of Scotland’s food and drink industry and a world-renowned product, Scotch whisky is truly iconic and worth celebrating. This challenge gains its impeccable credibility through its acutely egalitarian blind-tasting process. Quality alone determines the winners as our judges select not by label, name or price, but by taste alone.
As always, the top three whiskies go through to our Grand Final with a chance of being crowned Whisky of the Year.
A special thanks to GlenAllachie, Birlinn, Edinburgh Honey, Pekoe Tea Edinburgh and the Scotch Whisky Experience for sending our readers home with some fantastic whisky-themed gifts.
Group voting. Photo credit: Emma Ventham
Judging
We open the competition to all the whisky distilleries in Scotland, inviting them to send in any new expressions, or old favourites, to take part in the challenge. Then we find Scottish Field readers who know their drams or at least have interest to form a panel of judges.
We decant the whiskies into sample bottles adorned with only a number before handing them out to our judges. This year’s challenge included bottles ranging from £32 to £145. But without the ceremony of opening the fancy box, there was no telling which was which.
The first round is a knock-out round and our panel whittled the list of 40 whiskies down to 20. The top 20 were taken forward for the scoring round in the afternoon. Each whisky was scored out of five for nose, palate and finish. We then took away the highest and lowest scores and used the remaining marks to produce an overall score for each expression.
Judge Hannah Kaner hard at work. Photo credit: Emma Ventham
This might have been our youngest panel to date with Charlie Fulton, Emma Ventham and Tom Anderson, university students happy to try new whiskies outwith their student budgets. We also had two returning judges, Olga Varvarova and Melisa Woo, who kindly guided new judges along with an award-winning fantasy author Hannah Kaner in her whisky-loving element, tea blender Veronika Kutišová putting her taste buds to a different kind of test, and a husband and wife duo Yingbin Yu and Milosz Spisz with polar opposite tastes.
Winners
1. North British 2008 17yo
Judges scores:
4, 4.8, 4.3, 4.6, 4.8, 4.2, 4, 3.7, 4.8
Overall score: 30.7
Tasting notes from Charlie:
Nose: Popcorn, toffee, butterscotch, minerality, roasted corn.
Palate: Sweet, toffee popcorn, lightly salinic.
www.thompsonbrosdistillers.com
2. Kilkerran 8yo Cask Strength 57.7%
Judges scores:
4.5, 4.9, 3.8, 4.5, 3.8, 3.8, 4, 4.7, 4.95
Overall score: 30.2
Tasting notes from Hannah:
Nose: Papaya, pomelo skin, fresh citrus cut on the side of the road in Vietnam.
Palate: Slightly bitter and stone-like as old cognac cellar.
3. Raasay Hungarian Oak
Judges scores:
3, 5, 4.5, 1.5, 4.2, 4.8, 3.9, 4.8, 4.2
Overall score: 29.4
Tasting notes from Melisa:
Nose: Caramel, light peat. Smells like winter.
Palate: Caramel, dark wood, peat. Lingers on the palate.
4. Tomintoul Pedro Ximénez Sherry Cask
Judges scores:2, 4.1, 3.8, 4.5, 4.1, 3.8, 3, 4.9, 4.9
Overall score: 28.2
Tasting notes from Tom:
Nose: Fresh brioche, milk bread, cinnamon and apple. Sweet hints of dried orange rind.
Palate: Brioche, milk bread, bread and butter pudding with a slight bite.
5. GlenAllachie 15yo
Judges scores:
4.5, 4.1, 3.6, 1.2, 3.3, 3.7, 4.1, 4.8, 4.7
Overall score: 28
Tasting notes from Tom:
Nose: Sweet morello cherry, slight marzipan. Rich and dark.
Palate: Balanced with heavy cherry notes.
6. Tomintoul Cigar Malt
Judges scores from Olga:4.7, 4.5, 3.6, 3.2, 4.1, 3.2, 3.6, 4.6, 4.3
Overall score: 27.9
Tasting notes:
Nose: Tobacco, sweet pastry.
Palate: Unripe strawberry, bread and jam.
7. Angels Nectar PX Sherry Cask
Judges scores from Olga:
4.8, 4.2, 3.5, 4.5, 3.9, 3.9, 3, 3.6, 4.1
Overall score: 27.7
Tasting notes from Veronika:
Nose: Walnuts, ginger, dried figs.
Palate: Biscuits and pear.
8. Murray McDavid Benchmark: Aberlour 11yo Ximénez-Spínola PX Sherry Cask Finish
Judges scores:
4.2, 4.8, 4.2, 2, 2.3, 3.9, 4.2, 4.2, 4.2
Overall score: 27.2z
Tasting notes from Charlie:
Nose: Overripe pear, bruised fruit, melon.
Palate: Toffee, popcorn, salt, salted caramel and milk chocolate.
9. Wolfcraig 14yo Deluxe Blend Second Edition Triple
Judges scores:4.7, 3.5, 3.9, 1, 3.5, 3.5, 4.1, 4.4, 4.1
Overall score: 27
Tasting notes from Hannah:
Nose: Cola Haribo with a banana edge.
Palate: Soft caramel and dried oranges.
10. Aberdeenshire Single Malt 12yo
Judges scores:
4.2, 3.6, 3.8, 3.6, 4.3, 3.7, 4.3, 3.1, 3.4
Overall score: 26.6
Tasting notes from Charlie*:
Nose: Overripe melon, pear drop, fermented fruit.
Palate: Cantaloupe, hints of spicy and honeysuckle
*The wrong tasting notes were publishing in the October 2026 edition.
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