Top Brand - 2018 Ed.

This page is dedicated to the whisky brand of the year. For the process behind the awards see the page 2018 Awards Overview and check out my pages on Top Distilleries and Top Owners! Without further ado... the 166 brands I've tried, the Whisk(e)y Ranker Top Brands in 2018 go to:

Bronze Medal

The Balvenie
Whisk(e)y	Colley Rating	Page Rating
Balvenie 14 Rum Cask	75.4	58.9
Balvenie 16 Triple Cask	77.3	16.9
Balvenie 17 Peated Cask	95.4	71.8
Balvenie American Oak Cask	66.7	11.3
Balvenie Doublewood	54.4	40.2

About 12 years ago a friend of mine did some side work for a professor and was paid with a bottle of Balvenie 12 Doublewood.  My friend didn't really like it ... but I did ... and if it hadn't been for that lovely bottle I have no idea when I would have started drinking scotch.  I didn't try any other Balvenie expressions for a few years until I went to a Balvenie tasting where I tried all of the listed expressions side by side.  In early December I opened the bottle of Balvenie 17 Year Old aged in a peated cask and found that it was still everything I remembered it to be.  As reflected in the high score from the brand as a whole, the lapse in tastings certainly isn't a knock on the Brand.  My least favorite is the standard go to 12 year Doublewood and it only gets better from there.  Next year, besides finishing my bottle of the 17, I'm also excited to open up a bottle of 14 Year Old finished in a peated cask that I picked up in duty free.  I have high expectations for that dram!

Silver Medal

Port Charlotte
Whisk(e)y	Colley Rating	Page Rating
Port Charlotte 10 Tro Na Linntean	76.8	52.4
Port Charlotte 11 Eorna Na H-Alba	72.3	42.2
Port Charlotte CC:01	100.0	93.6
Port Charlotte The Peat Project	71.4	34.3

I may be one of the few people who prefers the Port Charlotte brand over Octomore.  If that offends you I'd be happy to debate you over drams of each... you know you don't know me but would take that debate accompanied by drams of each without blinking.  😜  But there is a seriousness to that comment because many of these drams are no longer in production.  It will be very interesting to see how my Port Charlotte ratings evolve because everything but the CC:01 has been discontinued and hence will only change as the whiskies they've been compared to change.  There are a few expressions out right now at very reasonable prices so there may be some new expressions making up the Port Charlotte average next year.

Gold Medal

Lagavulin
Whisk(e)y	Colley Rating	Page Rating
Lagavulin 12 Yr CS	93.0	80.8
Lagavulin 16	84.4	90.5
Lagavulin 18	63.6	6.3

The Port Charlotte and Balvenie brands (as well as many others) explore variations of their whiskies.  Lagavulin excels at making wonderfully smooth whisky dominated by peat and accentuated by fruit.  Period.  You know what you're going to get with Lagavulin, which makes it easy to go back to or spend a few extra bucks to try something new.  As in many cases, the "Brand" and "Distillery" are identical and have identical ratings, but I don't mind giving Lagavulin a gold for each.

Honorable Mentions:
Oban, Cragganmore, AnCnoc, Bunnahabhain, and Mortlach scored higher than the three awarded above but their scores were due solely to one expression and I don't want to judge an entire brand based on only two expressions.  In 2019 I'll make it a point to try something else from these three brands so next year they'll at least meet the qualifications.

Finally, if you've made it this far into this post, you may actually be interested in the full table of all distilleries.  Here's the top 25%, happy to send more stats upon request!

Brand	Colley Rating	Page Rating	Total
Oban	86.7	80	166.7
Cragganmore	80.8	66.7	147.5
AnCnoc	83.5	59.8	143.3
Lagavulin	80.3	59.2	139.5
Port Charlotte	80.1	55.6	135.7
Bunnahabhain	77.5	44.8	122.3
Mortlach	81.0	33.3	114.3
Balvenie	73.8	39.8	113.6
Laphroaig	72	41	113.0
Aberlour	69.8	41.6	111.4
Bulleit	58.5	51.4	109.9
Glenmorangie	67.3	42.1	109.4
Bruichladdich	76.6	32.1	108.7
Filibuster	74.1	32.0	106.1
Octomore	73.7	32.3	106.0
Bowman's Small Batch	70.0	35.7	105.7
High West	66.6	38.0	104.6
Kilchoman	75.4	27.4	102.8
Bowmore	68.6	31.6	100.2
Jefferson's	60.4	39.0	99.4
Bonesnapper	81.1	17.8	98.9
Willett's	63.4	33	96.4
Metze's	78.8	17.1	95.9
Talisker	65.0	30.5	95.5
Caol Ila	57.4	36.7	94.1
Taos Lightning	75.9	15.1	91.1
Four Roses	53.5	37.5	91.0
Ainneamh	79.3	11.3	90.6
Larceny	53.2	36.7	89.9
Beer Barrel	55.6	34.1	89.7
Compass Box	70.0	19.0	89.0
Russell's Reserve	59	29.7	88.7
Monkey Shoulder	52.6	34.5	87.1
Ardbeg	54.3	32.4	86.7
Blanton's	48.2	38.4	86.6
Aultmore	69.8	15.0	84.8
Noah's Mill	58.4	25.4	83.8
Glenfiddich	60.9	22.7	83.6
Angel's Envy	60.9	22.2	83.1
Ledaig	47.6	34.8	82.4
Blade and Bow	58.5	23.7	82.2
Templeton	62.6	19.6	82.2