Author Charlie MacLean has made a life out of rating Scotch whisky. Here are his favourite ways to enjoy a dram, from cosy city pubs in Edinburgh to Victorian hotels in the Highlands.
Edinburgh, Scotland’s cosmopolitan capital, is brimming with Unesco cache. Both its architecturally splendid medieval Old Town and Neoclassical New Town are World Heritage sites, while Edinburgh itself was named the world’s first City of Literature in 2004.
Overseas, Edinburgh is equally as revered for its whisky culture. There are more than 385 pubs in the city where you can savour the peat-flavoured drink right in its country of origin.
“It’s growing,” says esteemed scotch writer Charles “Charlie” MacLean. “A lot of bars have expanded the range of whiskies and the knowledge on part of the bar staff in order to be able to advise customers. So Edinburgh has become a hub.”
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Glasgow-born journalist and whisky expert Charlie MacLean has lived in Edinburgh since 1976. He is the founding editor of Whisky Magazine and his Glenfiddich Award-winning book Malt Whisky (1997) is considered an authority on the topic. In 2021, he was appointed an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list for his services to Scotch whisky.