An impressive start from one of Scotland’s newest single malt distillers, located on the remote Ardnamurchan peninsula in the western Highlands. Ardnamurchan Distillery produces both a peated and non-peated whisky, and then combines the two. The result is soft, pretty, honeyed profile, with gentle notes of lemon, poached pears, sea salt, and light drifts of peat smoke. Vanilla cream, ripe peaches, and apricot jam at the finish, closing with a final note of peat. Artfully made, most notably with its subtle integration of smoke. —David Fleming