The Best Scottish Island Whiskies Under $100

This Scottish island whisky is a 10 year single malt bottling which uses a combination of peated and unpeated barley in the makeup of the whisky. Jura 10 Year is matured in used American bourbon barrels and is finished in oloroso sherry butts. Bottled at 40% ABV.

Scapa is located on the Isle of Orkney just a few hundred meters from the other distillery on the island: Highland Park. Scapa produces about one million liters of whisky per year; not bad for three gentlemen handling the day to day production. They source their unpeated malt from the UK mainland and age their spirit exclusively in used American oak barrels, the last two years spent in 1st fill bourbon casks.

Distilled at the Tobermory Distillery on the Isle of Mull, Ledaig is actually the original name of the distillery upon its 1798 launch. Now, Ledaig is the peated whisky produced here while Tobermory is the un-peated one. Aged in ex-bourbon casks, this 10 year old whisky has a peat level of 35 ppm and is un-chill filtered.

Though first established in 1798, it has been closed off an on for over half the time. It has served as a canteen during the war, a cheese warehouse, and a power station among other purposes. Now they appear to be back for the long haul with Tobermory their unpeated whisky and Ledaig their lightly peated whisky.

Dark Origins is a whisky produced in memory of the brand's charismatic founder, Magnus Eunson, who is reputed to have done some "dark" duty (meaning, smuggling whisky under cover of night to avoid tax collectors) in his past. This is a member of the "core expressions" collection from this Orkney distillery, and uses twice as much first fill sherry cask in its resting (20%) than the 12 Year. It is also non chill-filtered.

In case you aren't up on your Italian wine knowledge, Amarone is a red wine produced in the Veneto region in Valpolicella. The grapes here are harvested and then taken to cool, ventilated rooms to dry over several months. The raisins, now with richly concentrated sugars, are turned into a dry wine that is high (14-16%) in alcohol with a dark fruit flavors. This single malt is aged first in traditional oak barrels for 8 years before finishing its aging ex Amarone wine casks.

Amoroso sherry is made by adding a sweet, concentrated wine to oloroso sherry which is a dark, full-bodied, but dry (not sweet). Talisker Distillers Edition spends the last several months of aging in an amoroso sherry cask before bottling.