Burns Night Whisky Guide: Best Drams for the Toast
Burns Night is the perfect excuse to raise a glass to Robert Burns — whether you’re hosting a full Burns Supper or just having a dram at home. If you’re wondering what to pour, this quick guide covers the best whisky styles for the toast, a richer after-dinner treat, and an optional smoky finish
Best whisky for the Burns Night toast
Lochlea Harvest Edition
This Whisky is a Burns Night-perfect toast with a real Ayrshire link — Robert Burns once lived and worked on the farm where Lochlea stands today. Matured in Port, Oloroso & Sherry casks, it brings cosy notes of stewed apples and oat biscuits, soft fruit sweetness, and a fresh, cereal-led finish
Tomatin Legacy
Tomatin Legacy is a classic Highland “toast dram” — approachable, bright and gently sweet. Matured in Bourbon and virgin oak casks, expect lemon and vanilla on the nose, with sweet barley, cracked pepper and pineapple sweets on the palate, finishing sweet with a light peppery warmth.
Table Whisky (The Leith Export Co.)
Table Whisky (The Leith Export Co.) is ideal if you want an Edinburgh bottle on the table — a soft, friendly single grain whisky blended and bottled by The Leith Export Co (the team behind the Port of Leith Distillery). Matured in virgin oak and sherry casks, it’s full of toffee, gingerbread, vanilla and black pepper, followed by berries, cinnamon and apple, finishing soft and easy — and it also shines in a simple highball if you’re serving cocktails.
Whiski Shop Exclusive: Old Particular North
British 18 Year Old
Whiski Shop Exclusive: Old Particular North British 18 Year Old limited edition (Edinburgh Grain) is our “local hero” toast — a single cask bottling from Edinburgh’s historic North British distillery with only 276 bottles were charged from this cask. Bottled at 48.4% with no added colour and no chill filtration, it’s warming and celebratory: buttered gingerbread, banana bread, honey and baking spices on the nose, mint chocolate and burnt caramel on the palate, and a lingering caramel-menthol finish.
SHOP WHISKI SHOP EXCLUSIVE OLD PARTICULAR
Ardbeg SMOKIVERSE (Limited Edition –
2025 Ardbeg Day Release)
Ardbeg SMOKIVERSE (Limited Edition – 2025 Ardbeg Day Release) is the bold smoky option for peat lovers at the table. Aged in ex-bourbon casks and made with a denser mash for magnified flavour, it delivers sweet aromatic peat smoke with fruity lift on the nose, a rich palate of sooty spice, creosote, aniseed and clove balanced by muscovado sweetness, and an almost endless finish of peat moss and bonfire embers.
However you celebrate, the best Burns Night is the one shared — good food, good words, and a good dram in hand. Slàinte mhath!
Explore our Burns Night Top Picks and choose your perfect toast whisky.
