We’re back for the annual All But Drams rule breaking. Rather than the usual bars, festivals and other bits we’re going to recommend whiskies. However, this isn’t just “the best thing we tried this year”. There’s some strict rules that keep it relevant to our love of the whisky community:

1. We pick two whiskies that have both been tasted by us at a public event. A Runner Up and a Winner.

2. After tasting at an event both were subsequently purchased at retail with our own money – no freebies here.

3. No event exclusives or secret pours are eligible. These whiskies were on the counter at a show and available to buy at the time. However, they could be sold out when you read this.

Now, onto the whiskies.

Runner Up

Glen Moray 8 Year Old Rioja Matured – Sampled at Harrow Whisky Festival

Glen Moray is a household name but not one we usually go for. A light and fruity Speyside distillery often isn’t our vibe, even if the reputation is good. However, on the events trail we soon learned about their Warehouse 1 series. This Rioja finish is the best of a beefy lineup all bottled at cask strength with a heavy finish. The Oloroso we enjoyed as a proper sherry bomb but we’ve tried plenty of those and the Peated Rioja is too similar to many ex-wine Islays for us to differentiate.

At 8 years old and just shy of 60% we’re not expecting miracles, but this whisky delivers a smack of wine and distillery character in one fell swoop.

The nose is deceptive, like something lightly peated. There’s a spicy BBQ sauce note too. On the palate the wine tannins and citrus sweet malt do battle with a different side winning each sip. The finish is wood smoke and leather with a touch of minerality. Not a subtle dram, but very much an interesting one.

We did however get a discount on the purchase which factors into the review. The £67 we paid is the right spot for this sort of whisky rather than the £85 RRP Glen Moray asks for.

Winner

The Heart Cut: Westward American Single Malt – Sampled at Whisky Birmingham

Westward is the distillery that got Nick deep into whisky. He’d been enjoying the occasional bourbon and plenty of beefy Islays but not much else until the moment their American Single Malt opened his eyes. To him, nothing else tastes like Westward and with the distillery only just saved from bankruptcy he remains closely guarding his small stash of bottles.

Enter The Heart Cut with their Westward single cask. This is the only independent bottling of Westward available in the UK and it is everything Nick loves about the distillery dialed up to 11.

The nose is subdued. You’d think this was a gentle sherried Speyside at first. A deep nose brings out vanilla custard and tropical fruits.

Sitting at 50% it’s higher than its core range siblings and you can feel every percentage of that ABV increase paying dividends as you sip. The flavour starts almost like a rye with cherry and breakfast cereal notes backed up by that vanilla custard.

On the finish its apple pie through and through. The green apple note we get from Westward isn’t like any cider or Calvados cask Scotch you might find. Its at times herbal, at other times sugary. We’ve tried some applewood smoked malts that are similar, but still not as fresh and sweet.

We were a little sceptical of The Heart Cut at first. 50cl bottles can feel like a bit of a rip off and this particular one, coming in at £84, was not a cheap purchase when a full 70cl of the Westward’s core offering can come in as low as £60. However, after trying this bottle and some more from the range they have shot up to being one of our favourite indie bottlers and genuine disruptors in the space. (The good kind of disruptors that make entrenched competitors think differently, not the bad kind that undercut a sector and then implode). We suspect that our little award is just one in a big pile they’ll be winning this year.

Having met Georgie and Fabrizio and sampled across their range we can tell you that all their whiskies are interesting, which is something few independent bottlers can achieve. Will you like all of them? Probably not, but they are all distinct products, even the two that are from the same distillery. They’re listening to community feedback too. After Nick and many others asked for sample pouches to purchase, they made that happen. So, click here to buy a sample of our favourite whisky of 2025.