Whisky
Christmas Whisky Deals 2026: The Supermarket Calendar
When Aldi, Lidl, Tesco and Sainsbury's cut whisky prices before Christmas 2026, which band the deals land in, and whether to buy the bottle or the box.
Some links in this article are affiliate links. If you click through and make a purchase, TasteSCOT may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. This never affects what we recommend — we only link to products we’d genuinely suggest.
- The supermarket Christmas whisky season starts in late September, not December — Aldi's Christmas drinks ranges were announced on 28 and 29 September last year, with the gift sets landing in stores from 2 November
- The real bargains are the big-brand loss-leaders in November, not the boxed premium bottles in December — those sit at full price until the January clearance
- Gift sets are packaging; bottles are whisky — a 5cl miniature trio costs several times more per centilitre than the same malt in a 70cl bottle
- This page is updated with the 2026 prices when each retailer publishes them. Until then, the current shelf-price table is on the deals guide, and the Whisky Value Calculator tells you whether any offer you spot is real
Every year the same thing happens. The supermarket whisky aisle grows a gift-box section in October, the big brands drop to their loss-leader prices in November, the premium bottles sit at full price right through December while everyone is buying them, and the best deals of the whole season arrive in January when nobody is looking. If you know the calendar, you buy the same bottle for less. This page is that calendar — which retailer does what, when it has historically happened, and what to buy for whom — with the one thing that cannot be written in September left honestly blank: the 2026 prices.
Quick Answer: Supermarket whisky at Christmas runs in three phases. Late September to October: the ranges and gift sets are announced and reach shelves (Aldi's Christmas drinks press releases landed 28–29 September 2025, gifts in stores from 2 November). November: the loyalty-card loss-leaders on big-name single malts — the genuinely good deals. December: gift boxes at full price. Buy the bottle in November, buy the gift set never, and if you can wait, the best prices of all are the post-Christmas and Burns Night reductions in January.
2026 Christmas prices: this section is updated when the deals are published
No prices here yet, on purpose. As of 2 September 2026, no UK supermarket has published its Christmas whisky range or prices, and this site does not print a figure it cannot source from the retailer on the day. When the ranges land — Aldi's press centre is where the first announcements historically appear, in the last week of September — this section gets the 2026 line-up, the launch dates and the shelf prices, each one dated and sourced, and the frontmatter carries the date they were checked.
Until then, two things are live and useful:
- The standard shelf-price table on the supermarket deals guide, verified in July 2026 — it is the non-promotional baseline any Christmas "offer" should be measured against.
- The Whisky Value Calculator, which turns any price, size and ABV into a price-per-unit-of-alcohol figure. A Christmas gift set that looks like a bargain usually is not once you run it through this.
Contents
- The Christmas whisky calendar
- Which supermarket discounts which tier
- Gift set or bottle?
- Which budget band the deals land in
- Black Friday whisky deals
- Whisky advent calendars
- Burns Night is the second bite
- Frequently asked questions
The Christmas whisky calendar: late September to Burns Night
The dates below are what each retailer actually did last season, read from its own press releases where they exist and from this site's retailer reviews where they don't. Where a claim could not be sourced, it isn't here — there is no "Lidl always launches on the third Thursday" folklore on this page.
Late September: the ranges are announced
Aldi moves first, and earlier than most people expect. Its 2025 Christmas drinks announcements all came in one burst: a 1-litre Highland Earl blended Scotch was announced on 23 September 2025 as "available in stores nationwide now"; the "winter warming tipples" release on 28 September 2025 stated that the Christmas range of winter warmers was "available in stores from now" and put the three-finish Glen Marnoch cask range (bourbon, rum and sherry finishes) in stores at the same time; and the festive gifting range was announced on 29 September 2025. So by the last week of September the whisky half of Aldi's Christmas is already on the shelf, before the gift sets arrive.
Lidl's corporate media centre carried no whisky announcement for Christmas 2025 at all (checked 2 September 2026), which is why there is no Lidl date in this section. What Lidl does at Christmas is covered by the age-stated Ben Bracken pattern below.
October: gift aisles fill, prices don't move
October is when the boxed sets, the branded glass-and-bottle packs and the advent calendars appear. It is also, historically, a quiet month for actual whisky discounts on the big brands — the promotional cycle on those bottles runs on a rolling 4–8 week rotation year-round (explained in the supermarket deals guide), and October is when the "was" price is being established so the November "now" price looks generous. Note what the shelf price is in October; you will see it again as the crossed-out figure.
Early November: Aldi's gift sets and the premium specials
Aldi's 2025 festive boozy-gifts range — which for whisky drinkers meant a Glen Marnoch trio of 5cl Islay, Highland and Speyside single malts — went into stores from 2 November 2025, per the 29 September press release announcing it. The aged, limited-edition single malts that Aldi has made a Christmas tradition of have historically landed a little later in November: the Glen Marnoch 29 Year Old, a 9,000-bottle release, went into UK stores from 14 November 2017 as part of that year's Christmas premium spirits selection. These sell through; they do not get reduced. If one is on your list, November is when to look, not December.
Lidl's equivalent is the age-stated Ben Bracken — the 22 Year Old Islay for Christmas 2016, the 23 Year Old Speyside for Christmas 2018, the 19 Year Old Islay for Christmas 2022 — covered with the award record in the Ben Bracken review. Lidl does not list prices online and does not pre-announce these, so the honest guidance is: check the whisky shelf in a Lidl from early November, and if there is an age statement on a Ben Bracken, that is the one.
Mid-to-late November: the loss-leaders
This is the window that matters if you want a named single malt for less. Tesco's Clubcard prices and Sainsbury's Nectar prices are where the biggest single reductions on branded bottles appear — the deals guide documents Highland Park 12 dropping to its Clubcard price three or four times a year, and the pre-Christmas run is reliably one of them. Black Friday is Friday 27 November 2026, and the week around it is when the online specialists and Amazon run their whisky reductions too (more on what is and isn't real below).
December: full price, on purpose
The companion guide to how supermarket pricing works is blunt about this: Christmas itself is when supermarkets push premium bottles at full RRP, because gift-buyers are not comparing prices. That is not a contradiction of the November deals above — the reductions in November are on the everyday core bottles that drive footfall, and the December full-price push is on the gift-boxed, older and prettier bottles that the same shopper trades up to once they are in the aisle. The practical version: if the bottle you want is on a loyalty-card offer in November, buy it then; nothing on a December gift shelf gets cheaper before the 25th. Buying online for delivery, check Royal Mail's published last posting dates rather than trusting a retailer's "in time for Christmas" banner.
January: clearance, then Burns Night
The post-Christmas clearance — late January according to the pricing guide above — is where the December gift stock goes on yellow stickers, and it runs straight into Burns Night (Monday 25 January 2027), which the supermarkets treat as a second, smaller whisky season. Aldi has issued a Burns Night whisky press release on 16 January in each of the last two years (2024 and 2025). If you can hold out, the bottle you didn't buy in December is usually cheaper in the third week of January than at any point in the run-up.
Which supermarket discounts which tier
No prices in this table, deliberately — those are added when the 2026 deals are published. What it shows is the shape of each retailer's Christmas, which does not change much year to year.
| Retailer | Christmas whisky behaviour | The tier that gets discounted | Bottle-level detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aldi | Announces ranges late September; own-label gift sets from early November; aged limited editions in November that sell out rather than reduce | Own-label prices are fixed, so nothing is "discounted" — the value is the limited editions | Every Aldi whisky |
| Lidl | No pre-announcements; age-stated Ben Bracken editions appear in the run-up to Christmas in the years they happen | Same as Aldi — own-label at a set price, the aged specials are the event | Every Lidl whisky · Ben Bracken |
| Tesco | Clubcard prices on the big-name single malts and blends through November | Named brands in the entry-to-mid single-malt tier — the loss-leaders | Every Tesco whisky |
| Sainsbury's | Nectar prices on the same big names; the periodic Highland Park 12 offer | Named-brand single malts | Every Sainsbury's whisky |
| Morrisons | Shelf-price promotions on the big brands; usually the lowest standard price on Tamnavulin Double Cask | Entry single malts and big blends | Every Morrisons whisky |
| Asda | Rollback-style shelf promotions on branded blends and entry malts | Blends and entry single malts | Every Asda whisky |
| Waitrose | Carries bottles the others don't; our review notes its Aberlour 10 discount runs in winter | Mid-tier sherried Speysides and independent bottlings | Every Waitrose whisky |
| M&S | Own-label single malts in presentation boxes; a gifting shop more than a deals shop | Rarely discounts whisky; the value is in the own-label Speyside itself | Every M&S whisky |
| Co-op | Thin range; occasional promotions on Famous Grouse and the like | Blends | Every Co-op whisky |
The pattern: the discounters don't discount — their Christmas is limited editions at a fixed price — and the big four discount the middle, the £20–35 named single malts that everyone recognises. Nobody meaningfully discounts the top shelf before Christmas.
Gift set or bottle?
The gift-box section of a supermarket whisky aisle is where the margin lives, and the arithmetic is simple enough to do in your head.
Miniature trios and quads. A 3 × 5cl set is 15cl of whisky. A standard bottle is 70cl — more than four and a half times as much. Unless the set costs less than a quarter of the bottle price, you are paying for the box. Aldi's Glen Marnoch trio (Islay, Highland, Speyside, 5cl each) is the honest version of this format: it is a sampler for someone who has not decided which region they like, and it should be bought as that, not as a cheap way to give whisky. The deals guide's take on miniature sets is harsher still, and it is right for anyone who already drinks whisky.
Bottle-plus-glasses sets. These make sense only if the bottle inside is one you would buy anyway at that price and the glasses are ones you would use. A branded tumbler is not a whisky glass; if the recipient is serious, a bottle plus a pair of proper glasses bought separately beats the box every time — see best whisky glasses for which ones.
Presentation-boxed bottles. The same whisky in a tin or a sleeve at a premium. Some brands only ship the Christmas run in the box, in which case there is no choice; where the plain bottle sits beside the boxed one, the plain bottle is the deal. Nobody drinks the tin.
The test that settles it: put the set's price, total volume and ABV into the Whisky Value Calculator and compare it with the 70cl bottle next to it. If the set costs more per unit of alcohol, it is a gift for someone who does not drink whisky — which is a perfectly good reason to buy it, as long as you know that is what you are doing.
Which budget band the deals actually land in
The by-budget picks live elsewhere and this page does not repeat them: the spirits gift guide ranks whisky and other Scottish spirits by budget band, and the one-bottle-per-shop guide names the best bottle on each supermarket's shelf. The Christmas-specific point is narrower. The discounts described above land almost entirely in the £20–35 named single malt band — Tamnavulin Double Cask, Glenfiddich 12, Highland Park 12, Laphroaig 10 on the loyalty-card prices — so that is the band where waiting for November pays. Below it the discounters' own-label malts are fixed-price all year (see the Aldi and Lidl reviews); above it the supermarket is the wrong shop in December, because the older and boxed bottles sit at full price while the online specialists do not, and a whisky-and-food present belongs in the hampers guide. No bottle prices appear here until the 2026 deals are published.
Black Friday whisky deals: what is real
Black Friday is 27 November 2026, Cyber Monday the 30th, and the searches for "Black Friday whisky deals" spike in that week and are gone by December. Three things to know before acting on one:
- Supermarkets fold Black Friday into their existing November promotions. There is no separate supermarket whisky event; the Clubcard and Nectar prices that were live the week before are, mostly, the Black Friday prices too. The was/now sticker may change; the "now" usually doesn't.
- The online specialists and Amazon are where the day means something, because that is where the older and rarer bottles live and where a genuine one-day reduction on a premium bottle can appear. Check the price against the retailer's own September listing, not against the crossed-out "was" price.
- Delivery is the trap. A Black Friday bottle ordered for Christmas delivery is fine; a Black Friday bottle ordered on 20 December is a gamble. Order on the day, not in the third week of December.
Whisky advent calendars
"Scotch advent calendar" is one of the biggest whisky searches of the whole autumn, and it is mostly a specialist product rather than a supermarket one. Two rules if you are buying one:
- Twenty-four different drams is the point. A calendar that is one blend split into 24 windows is a gimmick; the good ones — the Drinks by the Dram format and its imitators — give a different whisky behind every door, which for someone still finding their taste is genuinely the best way to spend the money.
- Buy in October or November. The obvious point that catches people every year: a calendar bought on 3 December is already three doors behind, and the ones worth having are limited runs.
Burns Night is the second bite
If Christmas gets away from you, the supermarkets give you another go four weeks later. Burns Night is Monday 25 January 2027, and it is the one date after Christmas when whisky gets its own promotional push: Aldi's Burns Night whisky press releases have landed on 16 January in each of the last two years, the January clearance of December gift stock is running at the same time, and the loss-leader rotation on the big brands comes back round. For a Scottish household it is arguably the better whisky-buying season of the two — the Burns Night whisky pairing guide covers what to pour with the haggis.
Frequently asked questions
When do supermarket Christmas whisky deals start?
The ranges are announced in late September — Aldi's Christmas drinks press releases came on 23, 28 and 29 September in 2025, with the whisky already in stores and the gift sets following from 2 November. The actual price reductions on big-name single malts are a November event, running on Tesco's Clubcard and Sainsbury's Nectar pricing through to Christmas. December is gift boxes at full price; the next round of genuine reductions is the late-January clearance and Burns Night.
Is whisky cheaper at Christmas or in January?
For the everyday named single malts, November's loyalty-card prices are as low as they go before Christmas. For premium and gift-boxed bottles, January is cheaper — they sit at full price through December and get cleared afterwards, straight into the Burns Night promotions on 25 January. If the bottle is a present, buy in November; if it is for you, wait.
Are whisky gift sets good value?
Almost never for someone who already drinks whisky. A miniature trio is 15cl against a 70cl bottle, and bottle-plus-glasses sets bundle a glass you would not choose with a whisky you can buy plain. They are good value only as a sampler for a beginner, or as a present for someone who will value the box. Run any set through the whisky value calculator against the 70cl bottle beside it before deciding.
What is the best supermarket whisky to give as a Christmas present?
Highland Park 12 at its Clubcard or Nectar price is the safest present in any supermarket — a genuinely good single malt most drinkers will enjoy. For someone who likes richer, sweeter whisky, Aberlour 12 Double Cask or GlenDronach 12; for a smoke lover, Laphroaig 10 on offer or Lidl's Ben Bracken Islay for a smaller budget. Skip anything in a gift box that is also sold plain on the same shelf.
Do Aldi and Lidl discount whisky at Christmas?
Not in the way Tesco and Sainsbury's do. Both discounters price their own-label whisky at a fixed level year-round; their Christmas event is limited-edition and age-stated releases — Aldi's aged Glen Marnoch specials in November, Lidl's age-stated Ben Bracken editions in the run-up to Christmas in the years they run — which sell out rather than get reduced. The value is in getting to the shelf early, not in waiting for a sticker.
Related articles
- Best Supermarket Whisky Deals: Real vs Fake Offers — how the was/now cycle works, and the current verified shelf-price table
- Best Supermarket Whisky 2026: One Bottle in Every UK Shop — the single pick per retailer
- Every Aldi Whisky Reviewed and Every Lidl Whisky Reviewed — the discounter ranges bottle by bottle
- Ben Bracken Whisky Review — including the age-stated Christmas editions and their award record
- Burns Night Whisky Pairing — the second whisky season, four weeks later
- Scottish Spirits Gift Guide — gin, rum and liqueurs as presents
- Whisky Value Calculator — price per unit of alcohol for any bottle or set
Newsletter
The Scottish Bite
Weekly hand-picked food & drink from across Scotland. No spam, unsubscribe any time.
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.
Sources
- Aldi press centre — "Aldi unveils fan favourite 1-litre Highland Earl whisky", 23 September 2025: aldipresscentre.co.uk ("available in stores nationwide now")
- Aldi press centre — "Aldi's range of winter warming tipples are here", 28 September 2025: aldipresscentre.co.uk (Christmas range "available in stores from now"; Glen Marnoch cask range "available in stores now")
- Aldi press centre — "That's the spirit! Aldi unveils dazzling range of boozy Christmas gifts", 29 September 2025: aldipresscentre.co.uk (Glen Marnoch trio gift set; range "available from 2nd November")
- Aldi press centre — Burns Night whisky releases of 16 January 2024 and 16 January 2025: 2024 · 2025
- scotchwhisky.com — "Aldi launches Glen Marnoch 29 Year Old", 15 November 2017: scotchwhisky.com (9,000 bottles; Christmas premium spirits range in UK stores from 14 November)
- Lidl GB media centre, checked 2 September 2026 — no whisky release for Christmas 2025: corporate.lidl.co.uk
- Semrush UK keyword database, trend columns read 2 September 2026 — "black friday whisky", "scotch advent calendar" and "whisky christmas gifts" all peak in November
- Retailer shelf prices — see the sources block on the supermarket deals guide, verified July 2026
Prefer it delivered?
Similar bottles you can get on Amazon
The own-label bottles above are in-store only. If you’d rather not make the trip, these are close in style and value — a small step up, delivered.
Tamnavulin Double Cask
Sherried Speyside — the closest match to an own-label sherry-cask single malt
Auchentoshan American Oak
Smooth, unpeated Lowland — an easy everyday pour in the supermarket price band
Glenfiddich 12 Year Old
Age-stated single malt — the safe step up if you want a known name delivered
Affiliate links — as an Amazon Associate we may earn from qualifying purchases, at no cost to you. It never changes what we recommend.
Free: The Scottish Whisky Tasting Guide
How to nose, taste and find your dram — the five official regions explained, no snobbery. Sent straight to your inbox.
Free. No spam — unsubscribe from any email. You'll join the TasteSCOT list.
Tools that go with this guide
Related articles
8 min read
Best Supermarket Whisky Deals 2026: Real vs Fake Offers
Which supermarket whisky deals are genuinely worth it in 2026 — and how to spot the fake "was/now" offers at Aldi, Lidl, Tesco, Morrisons and Sainsbury's.
9 min read
Best Supermarket Whisky 2026: One Bottle in Every UK Shop
One genuinely good whisky to grab in each UK supermarket — Aldi, Lidl, Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrisons, M&S, Waitrose. No overthinking; just the right bottle.
6 min read
Aldi Whisky: Every Bottle, Prices & the Award Winner
Aldi's whisky range rated on price, value per unit and blind-judged awards — the gold-medal Highland Black 8 under £15, and the Glen Marnoch single malts under £20. Which are actually worth buying.