Drambuie Liqueur 750ml

Drambuie is a Scotch whisky liqueur with a legend attached to its name, tracing back to 1745, when Bonnie Prince Charlie is said to have carried a secret honeyed elixir during the Jacobite Uprising. After his defeat at Culloden, the story goes, he gifted the recipe to Captain John MacKinnon of Skye in gratitude for helping him escape. The formula eventually passed to hotelier James Ross, who began commercializing it in the early 20th century, before it returned to the MacKinnon family, who controlled the brand for a century until it was acquired by William Grant & Sons in 2014.

Production starts with a blend of aged malt and grain Scotch whiskies, into which a closely guarded mixture of herbs and spices is infused before heather honey is added to sweeten the final blend. The exact botanicals remain a trade secret, though the finished liqueur is widely understood to carry notes of anise, clove, and citrus peel alongside the whisky itself. Drambuie is bottled at 40% ABV, considerably stronger than most liqueurs and close to standard Scotch whisky strength.

The liqueur pours a deep golden color and opens with rich heather honey sweetness layered over malt and oak from the underlying Scotch. Herbs and spices bring anise, clove, and orange peel into the mix, adding enough dryness and bitterness to keep it from tasting purely sugary. The finish is long, warm, and complex, making it equally suited to sipping neat or building into a Rusty Nail alongside more Scotch.