Best Scotch Whiskies in India Under Rs 3500

Few things in life are as inevitable and unforgiving as the morbid reflection of our finances at the end of the month, and for a Scotch whisky lover with a famously uncompromising penchant for a good drink, things could become truly difficult.

Distilled, matured and bottled whilst adhering to some of the most scrutinous and tedious making process, a bottle of Scotch is simply not something one can get for cheap. Although some truly benevolent brands that have our backs exclusively for moments as heart-breaking as these.

While the aspiration for a bottle of The Glenlivet single malt, or a luxury whisky in the form of Chivas Regal is completely understandable, when it comes to trying times as the end of the month, these are the Scotch whiskies that will always be there for you!

1. Ballantine’s Finest

No conversation about Scotch whisky is ever complete without the mention of Ballantine’s Finest. The good fortune of having this smooth and flavourful blended Scotch whisky to be priced affordably has been a reason for cheer among Scotch lovers for nearly a century.

One of the most popular brands for Scotch whisky in India, no Ballantine’s whisky is as popular as the Finest, and there aren’t many whiskies that deliver a product of this quality at such a competitive price! It is one of the ideal choices to go for if you haven’t enough to spare but wouldn’t like to compromise on quality.

2. 100 Pipers Deluxe

One of Scotland’s most lasting legends, the 100 Pipers whisky embodies the Scottish love for ‘the water of life’ with sheer elegance. This blended Scotch whisky brand is astonishingly popular in the Indian market, and has done so with a simple yet flawless execution of delivering a product that lives up to the legend that dictates, ‘when you taste a good Scotch you hear a piper play, and when you taste a truly exceptional Scotch, you can hear a hundred pipers play’.

The 100 Pipers 12-Year-Old is another excellent and perfectly priced bottle, and is placed slightly above the 100 Pipers Deluxe expression.

3. The Famous Grouse

Named after the national game bird of Scotland, the brand added the word ‘Famous’ to their name for no specific reason although the brand’s subsequent success post-rebranding has justified the move. It has consistently been Scotland’s largest selling Scotch whisky since 1980 and does remarkably well in other parts of the world too.

As far as the conversation is pivoted around budget-friendly Scotch whiskies, The Famous Grouse will always find a mention owing to its economical pricing and unwavering quality that delivers exactly what you pay for.

4. J&B Rare Scotch

A terrific blended Scotch whisky that has so often been described using the ‘value for money’ title, the Justerini & Brooks or J&B as it is popularly known as is one of Europe’s fastest moving Scotch whiskies.

The Justerini & Brooks is a no-nonsense blend of 42 malt and grain whiskies and continues to feature on the list of bestselling whiskies worldwide for many years.

5. Black & White

Represented by a pair of black and white terriers on the label, the Black & White brand of blended Scotch whiskies are renowned for their smoothness, which can be attributed to the higher proportion of grain whisky used in the blend.

For a blended Scotch whisky with high amounts of grain in the blend, Black & White is packed with some flavour that makes it a desirable Scotch considering the quality and the price.

6. Teacher’s Highland Cream

A mainstay on whisky counters all around the world, the Teacher’s Highland Cream is immensely popular not just around the world but also back in India, where it was dethroned by 100 Pipers a few years ago to become the bestselling Scotch whisky. Nevertheless, this blended Highland Scotch is a creamy, and flavourful delight.

The fingerprint single malt from the Ardmore Distillery is used to form the heart of the Teacher’s blend with as many as 30 source whiskies added further.

7. Black Dog Black Reserve

One of the few Scotch whiskies that are bottled in India, Black Dog carries an 8 Year age statement and is suited perfectly to the perilous month-end wherein some compromises are only natural, and simply have to be made.

If you are partial towards Scotch whiskies, Black Dog Black Reserve, the entry-level expression from the Black Dog brand is a fairly adequate drink that will not pinch your pockets.

Every Countries Make Their Whisky Differently

Throughout the world, whisky making traditions, methods and practices have been known to differ significantly, yet there is one thing that unites whiskyheads like no other –the love for whisky.

Mizuwari: The Art of Japanese Highball

If you are uninitiated to “highball”, the Japanese art of drinking, the word might bring to your mind a game played at casinos. But, interestingly, it is a cocktail with a spirit base which is mixed with a larger percentage of non-alcoholic mixer and served with ice in a tall glass. Since 1920, the Japanese have been making whisky. They love to combine their meals with alcohol. However, it was difficult to drink whisky straight during a meal. The Japanese art of drinking whisky is known as “Mizuwari”, which means mixed with water.

Wonder from the Dark Hills: Tamdhu Distillery

The first modern Olympic Games were held in 1896 in Athens, and far away in Speyside, Scotland in the same year, the Tamdhu distillery was founded. The people who founded Tamdhu were a group of assemblers headed by William Grant, a board member of the Elgin bank, who wanted to distil their own whisky. Tamdhu, like Knockando, is another railway distillery which has quietly provided blend fillings ever since its inception in the late nineteenth century. The architect was Charles Doig, a famous designer of distilleries. This made Tamdhu “the most efficient and designed distillery of its era” as per Alfred Barnard in 1898. In Gaelic, “Tamdhu” means .