Whisky gifts are complicated – especially for bosses, parents and in-laws. Here’s our guide to buying whisky for the boss

THE WORK BOSS

Buying for the boss is rare enough but it does happen. Perhaps they are moving to a different division or hitting a milestone birthday. They may have just had a child. Whatever the occasion, buying a whisky gift for your boss is something that should be done with care. Your first port of call is the HR office – does your company allow staff to buy gifts for their superiors? Some companies don’t but a quick call to HR or a glance at your staff handbook will let you know.

Gifts to your boss are best done in a group. Talk to your team, chip in and buy something special. Otherwise, you’ll likely to open yourself to judgment from your peers. A group purchase also helps because a gift for a boss can get expensive. Bosses are generally used to corporate gift giving and the standards are high.

For this category, we’d recommend a budget of around €200. It’s probably more than he or she would spend on themselves but not so much that it could be considered inappropriate. Especially if it’s coming from a group. This is a terrific bottle when buying for the boss.

Our choice
PORT DUNDAS OLD PARTICULAR 21

This is a fantastic release from the independent bottlers Douglas Laing and hits that sweet spot of a gift for your boss. It’s not too extravagant but is rare enough to impress even the most experienced whisky drinker. Single Grain is a delicate yet complex whisky style that is finding its form all over again in auction houses across the world.

Douglas Laing works with distillers from every part of Scotland to capture the very best of the Scottish tradition of whisky making. The company’s output represents some of the very best independent bottling in the world. This single grain was selected to become a very limited release in 2022. Distilled in the year 2000, just 220 bottles of this flavour-packed single grain were released, chosen to celebrate the essence of the Port Dundas distillery. 

Permanently closed, Port Dundas is a silent distillery, having shut its doors for good in 2011. It produced a lowland whisky that has increasingly rare stock levels and the whisky that Douglas Laing selected for this bottling is of an incredibly high standard. Bottled at 51.5%, it was matured for its full 21 years in a single hogshead cask.

THE PARENT

Buying whisky for a parent is usually a much more fun affair than for other authority figures in your life. You’re loaded with information about their likes and dislikes, you can find out easily what kind of whisky they prefer and the budget doesn’t have to be sky-high. That’s not to say you buy an entry-level bottle – he can do that himself.  

A bottle of whisky for one of your parents should be designed to bring you closer together. Buy something that’s just a little bit more expensive than he may buy himself. That way you’re saying thank you for everything he’s done but also it won’t be something so expensive he feels he should keep it. You want this bottle to be opened and to be drunk. Let him pour something that he considers to be a real treat and to start a conversation. A price range of around €100-€150 should work.

Our choice
DALMORE 15

This wonderful single malt from Dalmore is a wonderful bottle to open around the fire. Once uncorked it will be hard to put the stopper back before it’s finished as the rich, luxurious taste of Dalmore’s 15-year-old single malt s incredibly easy to drink. Matured for 12 years in white American oak, it was finished for a further three years in three different sherry casks: Amoros, Apostles and Matusalem oloroso. 

This combination of American oak and sherry is a defining characteristic of almost all the Dalmore expressions and this 2020 edition of the 15-year-old carries it incredibly well. Bottled at 40%, its dark hue indicates the elaborate sherry influence at a glance. This is a decadent whisky that any father figure will be delighted to share with a son or daughter and at a price point that won’t come with any guilt. 

THE FATHER- OR MOTHER-OF-THE-BRIDE

This is a perilous purchase for a groom. Get it right and you’ll be a star. Get it wrong and the subject will be raised at every family get-together for the rest of your life – and perhaps not to your face. You want to show respect with a purchase like this and it’s often a pre-wedding gift, maybe the day before the ceremony. A lot hangs on your relationship with your father- or mother-in-law-to-be so you will want to get it right.

Presuming they are whisky fans already, they’ll have a good sense of what you should be spending – and it will never be enough. You’re marrying one of their children so you can’t really put a price on that. Ask yourself, do you already have a close relationship with them and this gift will cement that or are you trying to forge a closer attachment?

For this purchase, the trick is to stay on safe ground – a classic bottle that suits their tastes but also their view of the world. It should be immediately recognisable as a bottle of value – not just in cost but in brand identity.

Our choice
THE MACALLAN 18

This is a minefield of a gifting landscape. There are so many ways to buy the wrong bottle. But we think this very special Macallan will do the trick. At 18 years old it’s a rich and decadent whisky with one of the most popular and powerful brand names in whisky. This 43% bottling is part of the Sherry Oak Series, an annual edition of top-end whisky from the Speyside distillery.

Macallan has perfected the sherry character of its malt and this exemplary bottle stands testament to that. The wood comes from Jerez in Spain where the cask is hand-selected from sherry-seasoned oloroso sherry casks. The wood comes from oak forests in northern Spain where it is cut and dried, then shipped to the south of Spain to air-dry once again. Seasoned with oloroso, they’re then transported to Scotland to be filled with Macallan’s spirit.

Every release in the Sherry Oak series is a winner with hugely loyal fans all over the world. A gift of the The Macallan 18 sherry edition is an introduction to an exclusive fan base that will win you family points forever. And that’s a great result when buying for the boss.

THE BRIDE OR GROOM

You have two choices when buying for a bride or groom. Do you buy them a bottle to keep for the future, perhaps to kickstart a collection or do you buy a really special bottle to drink with him before the big day? Either way, this will be a celebratory bottle, something for both of you to remember in the future.

There are around 19 pours in a regular whisky bottle. One trend is for the recipient to take one measure per year, counting out the road to 20 years married. Others like to buy the next edition of the same bottle each year to create a collection that starts on their wedding day. Even more people prefer to pop open the bottle and drink it with friends immediately.

Whichever path your bride or groom takes with your gift it should be a bottle of quality and personality to match their wedding day. A typical wedding gift in many European countries runs to around €300 these days so that’s a good price level to stay beneath.

Our choice
LAPHROAIG OLD PARTICULAR 15

This is a smoky and meaty entry from that most famous of distilleries, Laphroaig, on Islay. Another Douglas Laing bottling in their esteemed Old Particular series, this 15-year-old single malt is a real treat for Laphroaig fans. Laid down in 2004 it remained in a single refill hogshead for its full 15 years, before being bottled at 48.4%. 

It’s got lots of maritime influence from its home distillery as well as all the peat, soot and tar that any smoke fan could wish for. Douglas Laing has a long relationship with Laphroaig and is known for selecting the very best casks available. There were just 319 bottles of this fine single malt released, making it a wonderful bottle to kickstart an Islay collection or indeed to drink by the pour as the years of happy marriage flow by. A great bottle when buying for the boss.

THE BEST FRIEND TURNING 50

Whisky suits this gift experience perfectly. It speaks volumes about your friendship and feeds directly into a new 50-year-old’s fears for how close they are getting to retirement. Fifty-year-olds are famously focused on their future and suddenly their lack of future planning is put sharply into focus. They can feel the weight of years passing and a bottle of whisky to mark that can be a terrific way to salve the pain of hitting what they will think at the time is a very big number.

If you’re buying as part of a group of friends then this purchase gives you the chance to really splash out and find something special. You’ll probably not be able to find a bottle as old as your friend but you will be able to find a bottle released the year of his or her 50th or another special angle – perhaps from the region of their birth, a place they have visited frequently or a cask type from a country they love. You can also look to higher-priced bottles that they will have little intention of drinking soon and help them fuel a collection. 

Our choice
GLENFARCLAS 25 

A whisky half the age of its recipient is a pretty good match in any bottle but this 25-year-old Glenfarclas is a real gem. Matured completely in oloroso sherry for its full 25 years, this silky smooth single malt is the epitome of Speyside distilling. It’s rich and opulent and packed with flavour. Bottled at 46%, the full sherry maturation ensures that you can expect lots of fruit cake, dark chocolate, spices and coffee to push through its layers.

The famous red doors at Glenfarclas Distillery herald a captivating story, guarding the secrets of this great family distillery that refuses to bend to mass-production and consistently delivers excellence in its range. Having a Glenfarclas bottle on your shelves indicates a level of commitment to a Scottish collection that is hard to replicate. Partnering with royal craftspeople, leading producers and employing incredible cask selection, this Speyside distillery ensures time always remains on its side. It’s a perfect place to pay respects when buying for the boss.

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