Every 25th of January, Scots at home and around the world gather for a Burns Supper — haggis, poetry, a good deal of noise, and a glass raised to Robert Burns. And whatever else is on the table, one thing is never optional: the whisky. So the question every host eventually asks is a simple one — which whisky for Burns Night?
A quick word on the Burns Supper
The evening follows a happy, well-worn order: guests are piped in, the host says the Selkirk Grace, and the haggis is carried in to a recital of Burns’s Address to a Haggis — at the climax of which it’s toasted with a dram. Then comes the meal, the Immortal Memory speech in Burns’s honour, the Toast to the Lassies and its reply, more songs and poems, and finally everyone crosses arms and sings Auld Lang Syne — words Burns himself gave the world. Whisky runs through the whole night. The only decision is what’s in the bottle.
The obvious choice: the Robert Burns blended malt
If ever a bottle was made to sit at the head of a Burns Supper table, it’s this one. Our Robert Burns blended malt Scotch whisky wears Alexander Nasmyth’s 1787 portrait of the poet on its canvas label — the single most recognised image of the Bard, reproduced with the permission of the National Galleries of Scotland. It’s the dram to raise during the Address, and a keepsake the host will want to hold on to long after the plates are cleared.
It sits within our wider Famous Scots collection — so if your table leans more Jacobite or royal than literary, Bonnie Prince Charlie and Mary, Queen of Scots are waiting in the wings.
From Burns Night to the bells
Here’s a neat thing about the Robert Burns bottle: because Burns wrote Auld Lang Syne, it doesn’t retire on the 26th of January. The very same whisky is the natural pour for Hogmanay — the one to have in hand when you bring in the bells and cross arms for the song Burns made famous. One bottle, two of the biggest nights in the Scottish calendar.
Or blend your own to toast the Bard
Want something no other table will have? Blend your own Scotch whisky in The Lab. Draw from our hand-selected casks — tap to add a wee bit, press and hold for more — and create a unique whisky to call your own, from around £30 to £60. Name it after the host, the year, or the occasion, and you’ve got a genuinely one-of-a-kind dram to raise during the Immortal Memory — and a story to tell while you pour it.
It also makes a thoughtful gift for the friend who runs the Supper every year: a whisky blended just for them beats another shop-bought bottle every time.
Order in good time
Burns Night has a habit of arriving faster than expected. Whether you go for the Robert Burns bottle, a dram from the Famous Scots collection, or a blend of your own, order with a few days to spare so it’s on the table when the haggis comes in. Slàinte mhath.
Looking for a Scottish gift beyond Burns Night? Meet the whole range in the whiskies that wear Scotland’s national art.