Twenty whiskies have been named World’s Best Single Malt since the World Whiskies Awards began in 2007. Scotland may hold the first and most recent title, but it is by no means the only country to produce a winner. In fact, winners have hailed from Japan, England, Australia, Ireland, Taiwan, and Israel.
So, today we are looking back at every whisky that has ever been named the World’s Best Single Malt at the World Whiskies Awards and exploring which you can still reasonably get your hands on.
World’s Best Single Malt Winners, 2007–2012: The Old Order
The first six years of the award produced six winners from two countries, split evenly between Scotland and Japan.
2007: Talisker 18 Year Old, Scotland
Talisker 18 was declared the winner by a panel chaired by whisky writer Dave Broom. Bottled at 45.8% ABV, it comes from the only distillery on the Isle of Skye and is still part of the core range, which makes it unusual among the early winners.
2008: Yoichi Single Malt 1987, 20 Year Old, Japan
Nikka’s award record names the winner as Single Malt Yoichi 1987, a vintage release rather than a standing age statement, and calls it the first Japanese single malt to take the world title. The 20 year old drew on new oak, refill casks, bourbon barrels, and sherry butts, along with heavily peated whisky matured in new casks. Yoichi distills on Hokkaido.
2009: Highland Park 21 Year Old, Scotland
Highland Park works on Orkney, further north than any other Scottish distillery. The 21 year old was released in October 2007 for travel retail at 47.5% ABV, then reduced to 40% and withdrawn in 2010 as stocks ran down, before returning at the original strength in March 2012.
2010: Ardbeg Corryvreckan, Scotland
Corryvreckan is a peated Islay malt bottled at 57.1% ABV, matured in ex-bourbon casks and French oak, and named after the whirlpool that sits north of the island. It carries no age statement and remains part of Ardbeg’s core range, so it is still widely available.
2011: Yamazaki 1984, Japan
The 1984 vintage gave Suntory its first World’s Best Single Malt under the Yamazaki name. Yamazaki is Japan’s first and oldest malt distillery, founded near Kyoto in 1923 by Shinjiro Torii. The 1984 was a limited release and now sells for thousands of pounds at auction.
2012: Yamazaki 25 Year Old, Japan
Yamazaki won again the following year with its 25 year old. Suntory reformulated the expression in 2021, and the current bottle is blended from whiskies aged in American, Spanish, and Mizunara oak, so it is not the same whisky the judges assessed in 2012.
World’s Best Single Malt Winners, 2013–2019: The First Winners From Outside Scotland and Japan
Five countries took the title across these seven years, and two of them had never been serious contenders before.
2013: Ardbeg Galileo, Scotland
Galileo was released to mark Ardbeg’s maturation experiment aboard the International Space Station. Distilled in 1999 and bottled in 2012 at 49% ABV, it combined ex-bourbon casks with Sicilian ex-Marsala wine casks. Ardbeg took Best Islay Single Malt in the same year and Galileo is now available only on the secondary market.
2014: Sullivans Cove French Oak Cask HH0525, Australia
The Tasmanian distillery entered one specific cask, a 300-litre French oak tawny cask filled on 24 October 2000 and emptied on 19 March 2013 to give 516 bottles at 47.5% ABV. No whisky from outside Scotland or Japan had won before. Other Sullivans Cove French Oak bottles come from different casks and are not the winning liquid.
2015: Kavalan Solist Vinho Barrique, Taiwan
Kavalan distills in Yilan County and released its first spirit in 2006. The Solist range is bottled from single casks at cask strength, and the Vinho Barrique uses wine casks put through the shave, toast, and re-char process introduced to the distillery by consultant Jim Swan. The whisky also took Best Asian Single Malt.
2016: Old Pulteney Vintage 1989, Scotland
Pulteney distills at Wick, on the Caithness coast. The 1989 Vintage came out in September 2015 at 46% ABV after maturing in American oak ex-bourbon barrels that had previously held heavily peated malt. It was a limited release and is now discontinued.
2017: Craigellachie 31 Year Old, Scotland
The Speyside distillery still cools its spirit through worm tubs, and its 31 year old was bottled at 52.2% cask strength in April 2016 as the oldest expression in a range John Dewar & Sons had launched only two years earlier.
2018: Hakushu 25 Year Old, Japan
Hakushu was built in 1973 in the forests below Mount Kaikomagatake, in Yamanashi Prefecture. Suntory records the 25 year old as winning the title in both 2018 and 2020. Supply has been tight for years and the bottle is now among the most expensive on this list.
2019: Teeling 24 Year Old Vintage Reserve, Ireland
Teeling gave Ireland its first winner. The whiskey was distilled in 1991, matured in bourbon casks and then given further time in Sauternes wine casks, and bottled at 46% ABV without chill filtration. Teeling’s Dublin distillery had opened only four years earlier.
World’s Best Single Malt Winners, 2020–2026: England, Israel, and a Scottish Return
Four countries feature here, and two of the winners came from distilleries that had existed for barely a decade.
2020: Hakushu 25 Year Old, Japan
Hakushu became the only expression to win the title twice, taking it again in 2020 after its 2018 victory. The ceremony was replaced by a live-streamed announcement on 27 March because of the pandemic. Supply was already stretched before the win.
2021: The GlenAllachie 10 Year Old Cask Strength Batch 4, Scotland
The winner was one specific batch. GlenAllachie announced Batch 5 the same week Batch 4 took the title in March 2021, four years after Billy Walker acquired the Speyside distillery. Batch 4 was bottled at 56.1% and is long gone, and later batches are different whiskies.
2022: The Lakes Whiskymaker’s Reserve No.4, England
The first English winner came from a distillery established in 2011 on the shores of Bassenthwaite. No.4 carries no age statement, is bottled at 52% in natural colour, and draws on Spanish, American, and French oak with Oloroso, PX, and red wine casks.
2023: M&H Elements Sherry Cask, Israel
M&H distills in Tel Aviv and was founded in 2012, with Jim Swan advising here as he had at Kavalan. The winning whisky is matured in kosher Oloroso and Pedro Ximénez casks made to order in Jerez, and is bottled at 46% without chill filtration.
2024: The English Sherry Cask, England
England won again two years later. The English Distillery opened in Norfolk in 2006 as the country’s first dedicated malt distillery in a century, and its sherry cask bottling beat 1,500 entries from 40 countries. It carries no age statement and is bottled at 46%.
2025: The GlenAllachie 12 Year Old, Scotland
GlenAllachie’s second title went to a standard core bottling rather than a limited batch. The 12 is matured in Pedro Ximénez and Oloroso sherry, red wine, and virgin oak casks, and comes in at 46% with no chill filtration or added coloring. It also took Best Scotch Speyside Single Malt.
2026: Bowmore 21 Year Old Sherry Oak Cask, Scotland
The current champion is aged in ex-bourbon and Oloroso sherry casks and finished in a first-fill Pedro Ximénez cask, bottled at 46.8%. It arrived in early 2026 as the oldest release in Bowmore’s Sherry Oak Cask range and also took Best Scotch Islay Single Malt.
Which Winners Can You Still Buy?
Most of the twenty are gone, but five are on shelves right now.
The GlenAllachie 12 Year Old is the obvious starting point. The 2025 champion is listed from about £42 and stocked by most specialists, with prices running to roughly £55 depending on where you look. Prices in the US seem to start at around $75.
M&H Elements Sherry Cask is similarly accessible. The 2023 winner is £49.50 at The Whisky Exchange and generally in stock. Around $69 in the US.
The English Sherry Cask costs £59 at Master of Malt and remains part of the core range, though it is difficult to find in the US.
Ardbeg Corryvreckan is the best of the older options. It won in 2010 and is still a core bottling, available from around £74. US prices often go above $85.
Bowmore 21 Year Old Sherry Oak Cask is the current title holder and costs more, at £269 from Hard To Find Whisky, but seems to be pretty readily available.
Everything else is either discontinued, at auction, or priced like the Hakushu and Yamazaki 25 year olds, which run into thousands of pounds.
What the List Actually Shows
Counting Scotland and England separately, the tally runs Scotland nine, Japan five, England two, and one each for Australia, Taiwan, Ireland, and Israel. Scotland and Japan hold fourteen of the twenty titles, though the split is front-loaded: every winner from 2007 to 2013 came from one of the two.
It would be tidy to say the award has been moving away from Scotland ever since, but the numbers do not support it. Scotland took five of the first ten titles, four of the second ten, and both of the most recent. What changed is the range of countries that can plausibly win, not Scotland’s rate of winning. Kavalan, whose 2015 victory was Taiwan’s first, was named Distiller of the Year at the 2026 awards.
Have you tried any of the twenty? We would like to know which ones stood out, whether any of them lived up to the title, and whether you agree with the winners. Let us know in the comments.
Read the full article at Every Whisky That Has Ever Won World’s Best Single Malt at the World Whiskies Awards
