Whisky

I Tried Every Aldi Whisky So You Don't Have To

Aldi sells 8+ whiskies at any given time, from £14 Highland Black to £25 single malts. I bought them all, tasted them blind, and ranked them. Several are genuinely good.

By Gary·24 April 2026·7 min read

I walked into my nearest Aldi on a Wednesday afternoon and bought every whisky they had. Eight bottles. Total spend: £152. My partner thought I'd lost the plot. Reader, I had not.

The premise is simple: Aldi's own-label whiskies are astonishingly cheap. Highland Black 8 Year Old costs £13.99. Their Glen Marnoch single malts are £17.99. These are prices that wouldn't buy you a large measure of Johnnie Walker in a Glasgow pub. But are they actually drinkable? Or are you getting what you pay for?

I poured them all blind — decanted into numbered glasses by a friend, so I didn't know which was which — and scored them on a scale of 1 to 5. I added a couple of branded benchmarks (Famous Grouse at £16 and Auchentoshan American Oak at £25) to calibrate.

The results

Scored blind, tasted neat at room temperature, then with a few drops of water.

1st place: Glen Marnoch Sherry Cask — 3.8/5

Price: £19.99 · ABV: 40% · Type: Single malt (Speyside, unconfirmed)

The surprise winner. Genuine sherry cask influence — dried fruit, a touch of orange peel, warm spice on the finish. This tastes like a whisky that should cost £30–35. The sherry character isn't deep or complex, but it's present and pleasant, which at £20 is remarkable. My blind score was actually higher than the Auchentoshan benchmark.

I went back and bought another bottle.

2nd place: Highland Black 8 Year Old — 3.5/5

Price: £13.99 · ABV: 40% · Type: Blended Scotch

The one everyone talks about, and it earns the reputation. Smooth, lightly honeyed, no rough edges, no burn, no off-notes. At £14 it's the best-value whisky in any UK supermarket by a distance. The 8-year age statement means the youngest component has had time to mellow properly — you can tell. It won Gold at the Scotch Whisky Masters, and that award is deserved.

This is the bottle I keep in the cupboard for weeknight drams and mixing.

3rd place: Glen Marnoch Highland — 3.3/5

Price: £17.99 · ABV: 40% · Type: Single malt (Highland, unconfirmed)

More robust than the Speyside version. There's a grassy, slightly malty quality that reads as Highland without being particularly distinctive. A completely inoffensive whisky that would sit comfortably at £25–28 in different packaging. The Aldi price makes it excellent value; the whisky itself is solid rather than exciting.

4th place: Auchentoshan American Oak (benchmark) — 3.3/5

Price: £25 (Tesco) · ABV: 40% · Type: Single malt (Lowland)

Included as a benchmark. Scored identically to Glen Marnoch Highland in blind tasting, which says more about Glen Marnoch's value than Auchentoshan's quality. The Auchentoshan is more refined — the vanilla is cleaner, the finish is longer — but the gap is much smaller than the £7 price difference suggests.

5th place: Glen Marnoch Speyside — 3.2/5

Price: £17.99 · ABV: 40% · Type: Single malt (Speyside, unconfirmed)

Light, fruity, inoffensive. The standard Speyside profile: apple, pear, a hint of vanilla. There's nothing wrong with it and nothing memorable about it. It's the whisky equivalent of a reliable weeknight dinner — perfectly adequate, never thrilling.

6th place: Famous Grouse (benchmark) — 3.0/5

Price: £16 (Tesco) · ABV: 40% · Type: Blended Scotch

Included as a benchmark for the blended category. Fine. Does exactly what it says. In the blind tasting, it scored below Highland Black, which costs £2 less. The Grouse has more grain character (thin, slightly sweet) than Highland Black's more malt-forward profile.

7th place: Aldi Scotch Whisky (the very cheap one) — 2.2/5

Price: £11.49 · ABV: 40% · Type: Blended Scotch

Every supermarket has a bottom-shelf blend. This is Aldi's. It's harsh, grain-forward, and finishes with a burn that the Highland Black somehow avoids entirely. The £2.50 saving over Highland Black is not worth it. This is for mixing with Coke when you genuinely don't care, or for cooking.

8th place: Aldi Irish Whiskey — 2.0/5

Price: £13.49 · ABV: 40% · Type: Blended Irish

Included because it was on the shelf. Thin, sweet, forgettable. Irish whiskey at this price point has less character than Scottish blends at the same price because the triple distillation removes more flavour congeners. Not unpleasant, but not worth buying when Highland Black exists for 50p more.

The price-per-unit breakdown

I ran all eight through our Whisky Value Calculator:

| Whisky | Price | £/unit of alcohol | |--------|-------|------------------| | Aldi Scotch (bottom shelf) | £11.49 | £0.41 | | Highland Black 8 | £13.99 | £0.50 | | Glen Marnoch Speyside | £17.99 | £0.64 | | Glen Marnoch Highland | £17.99 | £0.64 | | Glen Marnoch Sherry Cask | £19.99 | £0.71 | | Auchentoshan American Oak | £25.00 | £0.89 |

Highland Black at £0.50/unit is the value champion. Glen Marnoch Sherry Cask at £0.71/unit is the quality-value champion — it tastes like a £0.89–1.00/unit whisky.

What Aldi won't tell you

Aldi doesn't disclose which distilleries produce their whiskies. This is standard for own-label spirits — the contracts prohibit naming the source. But the whisky community has strong suspicions based on flavour profiling and process of elimination. I'm not going to repeat them here because they're unconfirmed, and repeating distillery names without evidence would be irresponsible.

What I can say is that these are real Scotch whiskies. The Scotch Whisky Regulations 2009 are strict: to be labelled Scotch, the whisky must be distilled and matured in Scotland for a minimum of three years in oak casks. The Glen Marnoch range carries "Single Malt" on the label, which means 100% malted barley from a single distillery. These aren't blending shortcuts or legal grey areas — they're legitimate Scottish single malts sold at prices that embarrass the established brands.

What I'd actually buy again

For everyday: Highland Black 8 (£13.99). I've been buying this for two years and I'll keep buying it. It's better than Famous Grouse, it's cheaper than Famous Grouse, and it's a perfectly good dram neat, with water, or with ginger ale.

For a treat: Glen Marnoch Sherry Cask (£19.99). The best whisky Aldi sells, and a genuine bargain compared to named sherried malts at £30+. When it's in stock, buy two.

To avoid: The bottom-shelf Aldi Scotch at £11.49. The £2.50 saving over Highland Black gets you a noticeably worse whisky.

Check the value of any bottle with our Whisky Value Calculator, or find your taste profile with the Whisky Flavour Finder.

TasteSCOT is an independent editorial site. We are not affiliated with any distillery, brewery, producer, or tourism body. All opinions are our own. Prices, availability, and opening hours are checked at the time of writing but may change — always verify with the retailer or venue before visiting or purchasing. If you drink, please drink responsibly.