Cutty Sark

Cutty Sark was created in 1923 at Berry Bros & Rudd, the old wine and spirits merchant in St James's Street, London. It takes its name from the clipper ship Cutty Sark, and its yellow label with the ship has become one of the most recognisable in Scotch whisky.

The blend was made deliberately light and pale, without added caramel colouring at a time when darker blends were common. That style found a large following in the United States, and the brand is closely tied to the Prohibition era, which its Prohibition Edition, bottled at a higher strength, recalls.

After decades with Berry Bros & Rudd, the brand passed to Edrington in 2010 and was sold to the French group La Martiniquaise-Bardinet in 2018. Like any blended Scotch, it combines malt and grain whiskies distilled at several Scottish distilleries.

The everyday bottling is the standard Cutty Sark 70cl. Above it sit aged blends such as the 12 Year Old (including the Emerald litre bottling), the 17 and 18 Year Old and the rare 33 Year Old, along with special releases like the Prohibition Edition and the Centenary Edition marking 100 years of the brand.