If you want to spend your money on whiskey, you need to look to Scotland. 

If you think Burgundy’s dominance of the various lists of most expensive wines is impressive, Scotland’s grip on the equivalent list of whiskeys is positively vise-like.

While wines from the Côte d’Or comprise 80 percent of the top 10 most expensive wines, a wider view shows that wines from nine other regions crop up in the top 25, including growing areas as diverse as California, Portugal and the Rheingau. Have a look at the list of most expensive whiskeys and the outlook is bleak for non-Scottish producers – only two names in the top 25 are not from Scotland.

This is understandable. For many years, the Scotch industry was the one leading the way when it came to variety, quality and price. The single malts of the highlands and islands had formidable names, formidable palates and, yes, formidable price tags. What they also had was a marketing mindset that told them that rarity drove prices up, so to achieve ever-greater returns, it was necessary to innovate.