The best Scotch whiskeys, ranked, for the dad (or whomever) in your life

In my world of spirits, whiskey is king.

Don’t get me wrong, other boozes are nice too. I’m developing a newfound appreciation of tequilas. We’re entering prime vodka and gin months now that the summer is upon us. Hell, there’s even beauty in the hard seltzer landscape right now.

My favorite, however, remains whiskey. From the vanilla and oak of American bourbons to the smooth, blended tenets of Canada’s stock, there’s no spirit as diverse in taste and mood. While you’ll get a tremendous spectrum of great whiskeys in the U.S. — Joseph Magnus’ triple cask bourbon out of Michigan recently blew my mind — the distilleries that dot Scotland, from the Hebrides islands to the highlands, bring so many amazing, comforting malts with distinct hallmarks of each region.

That can make finding the right Scotch a difficult and occasionally intimidating process. The easiest solution is to try as many as you can and zero in on the dram that best fits your taste. But that’s time consuming and expensive.

Instead, let me drop some hints based on my experience, covering everything from simple and inexpensive (but still good!) to the malts designed to challenge and delight a more experienced drinker. And, just a heads up, but this list is gonna skew hard toward the smoky, peaty Islay malts I love most.