Top Rated Affordable Scotches

Sheep Dip gets its name from a time amateur whisky distillers in Scotland's farm lands used to hide their hooch from tax collectors, and the joke is the barrels were labeled "Sheep Dip" to throw them off. Considering the name, this blend was actually crafter by revered Master Blender Richard Paterson of Whyte & Mackay for the Spencerfield Whisky Company. 16 different Highland whiskies, aged between 8 - 21 years, were given a year to get to know each other in first-fill casks in order for them to mellow before bottling.

Created in 1820 under the name "Old Special Highland Whisky", Johnnie Walker Black was so named in 1909 as their customers had started to order their bottles by the label's color. Comprised of a blend of over three dozen distilleries, the malts in the whisky are largely comprised of peated distilleries such as Talisker and Lagavulin but also the unsung hero Cardhu. All of the whiskies included in the blend are aged a minimum of 12 years. (SRP $29.99-34.99 for 750ml)

Launched in the midst of Prohibition, this blend was created to provide a lighter whisky, both in color and in taste, to better suit wine drinkers, which it did to great success. Cutty Sark is named after the world's fastest ship at the time, a tea clipper, itself named after a young witch character in a poem written by celebrated poet and Scotsman, Robert Burns.

Although blended whiskies are a great place to start if you are just building your relationship with Scotch, Buchanan’s specifically is a perfect entry-level scotch because of the absence of abrasive peat smoke, the rich cocoa undertones and the complexity of welcoming flavors. In 1884 Canadian born James Buchanan first created Buchanan’s to fill a niche for an affordable entry level blended Scotch and it has since become a worldwide-recognized brand with strong acclaim in South American countries like Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela also enjoying great popularity in Mexico.

Buchanan Blended whiskies are a great place to start if you are just building your relationship with Scotch. Canadian born James Buchanan first created Buchanan’s to fill a niche for an affordable entry level Scotches and they have since become known for their strong acclaim in South America with some its largest markets in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela.

This unusually named whisky is derived from the wine & spirits merchants that created the blend in the West End of London, Mr. Hankey & Mr. Bannister. They were some of the first to take Scotch whisky out of Scotland and blend it elsewhere which they did over two hundred years ago. It is a blended whisky comprised of Lowland grain whiskies and Highland & Speyside Malt whiskies.

Ben Nevis is a lesser-known distillery on the Scottish Westcoast. The washbacks are wooden, and brewer's yeast is used. Distillation is slow and steady. A testament to the old-school way Ben Nevis has always operated. The Ben Nevis 10 Year has been around since 1996, and since then has slowly made a name for itself, but can still be considered a hidden gem.

The Snow Grouse was originally launched in 2008 as a retail-travel exclusive, though it has expanded its market (note: this is not yet available in the US). It is a blended grain whisky and apparently designed to be enjoyed straight from the freezer.

The first expression in Johnnie Walker's Travel-Retail-exclusive Explorers' Club Collection, The Spice Road was released in Duty Free stores late in 2012. This adventure-themes bottling is meant to evoke images of traveling the Silk Road and wandering the spice bazaars of Asia. It's a blended Scotch bearing no age-statement

J&B began as most Scotch whisky blends did — through wine & spirits merchants. J&B stand for the names "Justerini", an Italian who had followed his heart to London and subsequently became a wine & liquor merchant, and "Brooks" who purchased the business a few generations later. The blend as we know it today came about in the 1930s, just after the end of Prohibition.