Our “Burns Theme” tasting was held to celebrate the birthday of Scotland’s national poet Robert Burns, born on 25th January 1759, and whose influence on Scottish culture is celebrated at Burns Night Suppers across the world every January.

For this tasting event we chose, as close as we could, a lineup of whiskies that had links in some way to the Bard, with traditional haggis, neeps and tatties being served at half-time.


Whiskies with rather indirect Burns associations!

Arbikie Highland Rye The Original, 48% ABV, £95 (Presented by Colin)
Arbikie Distillery: Designed and built as a farm to bottle distillery, located in a region loved by Burns, this distillery produces Scotland’s first ‘rye’ whisky made from malted barley, rye, and wheat, probably more representative of the whisky made in the 1800s.

North British 1991 33 Year Old ‘An Edinburgh Dram’ from Thompson Bros, 40.1%, Grain Whisky, £64.95 (Presented by Dianne)
North British Distillery: Located in Edinburgh this distillery produces grain whisky for blending and has become popular recently after older aged bottlings appeared from independent bottlers such as Thompson Bros. This bottle of 33yo whisky is marketed as ‘An Edinburgh Dram’ and so we chose this to honour the time Burns spent in Edinburgh when his poetry started to became popular amongst the social elite of the time. 

Ardbeg Anthology 2023 The Harpy's Tale, 46%, £153 (Presented by Michael)
Ardbeg Distillery: This classic Islay distillery produces peated whisky, full of flavours of seaweed and peat unique to the island. This bottle is from their ‘Anthology Collection’ representing poetry of all kinds, and this one in specific is the mythical Harpy’s Tale. (Poetry is the rather tenuous link to Burns!!!)