Single grain Scotch whisky bottles have a reputation for being the quieter member of the whisky family. They tend to sit behind single malt whisky and blends, rarely demanding the same attention. But if you spend a little more time with the category, it gets considerably more interesting. Peat, port, sherry, native character and decades in oak all make an appearance here. Here we feature the 5 best single grain whiskies including the Loch Lomond Peated Single Grain, Cameronbridge 15 Year Old, North British 2011 - Murray McDavid Select Grain, Girvan 26 Year Old - North Star Spirits and Invergordon 50 Year Old - Finn Thomson whisky.
These bottles in our list show just how far single grain Scotch whiskies have travelled, from an unexpectedly smoky Loch Lomond to a 50-year-old Invergordon whisky that has spent half a century in a cask.
Forget everything you thought you knew about grain whisky. Loch Lomond makes its peated single grain Scotch whisky using heavily peated malted barley, distilled in a continuous still and matured in first- and refill-bourbon casks. The result is the Loch Lomond Peated Single Grain Scotch whisky, which combines creamy vanilla and soft fruit with an unmistakable thread of peat smoke. The official tasting notes include clove, blackcurrant, green apple, lime and aniseed.
ABV: 46%.
This 2026 release from Brave New Spirits is a 15-year-old Lowland single grain, matured in a second-fill sherry hogshead. Only 304 bottles of the Cameronbridge 15 Year Old Scotch whisky were produced, with the sherry influence designed to complement rather than overwhelm the spirit. Brave New Spirits describes notes of peanut brittle, demerara sugar, black treacle and toasted coconut.
ABV: 51.8%.
Here is where single grain gets properly playful. Murray McDavid's 13-year-old North British spent its first decade in bourbon hogsheads before three more years in Tawny Port and PX Sherry casks. Only 601 bottles of the North British 2011 - Murray McDavid Select Grain Scotch whisky were produced. Expect stewed fruit, berries, and orange oils on the nose, followed by marmalade, caramel, and vanilla.
ABV: 51.7%.
This is a very different proposition. Distilled at Girvan in September 1992, the Girvan 26 Year Old - North Star Spirits Scotch whisky spent 26 years in a bourbon barrel before being bottled in March 2019. North Star produced just 180 bottles, with the whisky left un-chill-filtered and at natural colour. Its tasting notes are wonderfully unconventional, moving from coconut and citrus to dark chocolate and burnt pineapple.
ABV: 53.5%.
And then there is the half-century dram. The Invergordon 50 Year Old - Finn Thomson Scotch whisky was distilled on 28 November 1974 and bottled exactly 50 years later. Just 275 bottles were produced. After five decades in a single cask, the whisky develops notes of ripe peach, nectarine, vanilla cream, almond, coconut and oak.
ABV: 46.1%.
For years, single grain whisky has been the Scotch category people discovered almost by accident. That is starting to change. As distilleries and independent bottlers give grain whisky more time, better casks and more room to develop its own identity, the single grain Scotch whisky category is becoming harder to overlook. That is the real appeal of single grain whisky today today: there is still plenty of territory left to explore. For whisky drinkers who have already worked their way through the usual single malt whiskies, this is where the next discoveries could be hiding.