Deanston 18yo
Official Bottling | 46.3% ABV
Age Meets Value
Every year in the run up to Christmas, for the past decade or so, I’ve treated myself to an older expression.
To be clear, when I say ‘older expression’ I’m talking about a whisky that’s aged for around the 18 year mark. Although age statements play less of a role in whisky nowadays, there’s always been a sense, at least to my mind, that ‘18’ is a significant number in the world of single malts. It’s sort of a milestone that marks the point at which a whisky starts to become truly ‘old.’
Of course, there are a million caveats to this. How old a whisky is on paper and how it behaves in the glass depends very much on the quality of the casks that have been used in the vatting. I once had a 29 year old Glen Marnoch (Aldi’s own brand whisky, for those of you who aren’t familiar with it), which drank, frankly, like a 12 year old expression. It was a Christmas release, no doubt a loss leader for Aldi, and it cost me, from memory, about fifty quid.
Admittedly, £50 for a 29 year old whisky is ridiculously good value, so despite the fact that it didn’t drink like an older whisky, I wasn’t about to complain. I still remember, as I sat there sipping it, wondering whether I’d have just been happier spending £50 on a younger expression that was naturally presented and bottled at a decent ABV. Because this Glen Marnoch was bang average. Not only did it drink like a much younger whisky, but it was bottled at 40%.
So an impressive age statement is no guarantee of quality…but we know that anyway. If you’ve been around whisky for any length of time, you’ll already be aware that older whisky is not intrinsically ‘better’ than young whisky, even when it’s good.
I remember when I was new to whisky having this notion that the number of years that a whisky had spent in the cask directly related to how good the liquid in the bottle was and that somehow, with every year that ticked by in oak, a whisky became more flavoursome. I’m pretty sure that a lot of casual whisky drinkers still believe that. Certainly, the marketing departments of some of the more established distilleries would love us to buy into it. But experience tells us that it’s simply not true.
One thing that is true, though – generally speaking – is that well aged whisky is different. There are certain notes, for instance, that are typically associated with older whiskies that, as a rule, we tend not to find in younger expressions: tobacco, leather arm chairs, dusty book jackets, furniture polish…these are notes that I’ve come to associate, in a very general way, with older expressions.
You’ll notice that I’m being fairly tentative here. I’m aware that, just as there are older expressions out there that behave like younger ones, there are also some very young whiskies out there whose complexity belies their relatively young ages. But older whisky is different and when it’s done properly, it often has a certain complexity to it that younger expressions sometimes lack.
There’s something about a decent length of time in a quality cask – a cask that doesn’t drown out the spirit signature, but which still manages to assert itself – that can add a certain dimension to a whisky that typically, only comes with age.
All of which brings me to today’s review. As I said at the start, for the last decade or two, I’ve treated myself to a bottle of reasonably well aged whisky to enjoy over the Christmas break. This time around, I decided to pull the trigger on Deanston’s 18yo.
If you’ve been reading Dramface for any length of time, you’ll know that there are some Deanston fanboys on the team. I have to admit, I’m not one of them. My only previous encounter with Deanston was a few years back, when I bought a bottle of their 12 year old. Having heard its praises sung far and wide, I’ll admit that I was excited to pop the cork on it. Unfortunately, it left me a bit cold. I wouldn’t say that it was bad whisky, but I found it fairly anodyne.
Our palates change though and batches vary. It’s no doubt high time that I went back and revisited that 12 year old. In fact, I may do just that, and give you my thoughts. Because what I will say is that this 18 year old expression is a good one. Having been fairly underwhelmed by the 12yo, I was dubious about whether I’d enjoy it. Luckily, I’ve been drinking whisky long enough to know that my own palate is constantly evolving. As such, I decided to take a chance on it.
Review 1/6 - Fergus
Deanston 18yo, Official bottling, refill & first-fill bourbon matured, 46.3% ABV
£85 paid and widely available
Before I get into the tasting notes, it’s worth mentioning that Deanston’s 18yo has been reviewed previously by Hamish, so if you’re interested in getting an alternative take, then it’s worth checking his review out from March 2023.
As to the price of this bottle, I paid just shy of £85 for it, which in today’s climate is fairly reasonable for an older expression.
My only gripe is that there’s no mention on the label of whether or not it’s natural colour, which by default, leads me to assume that it probably isn’t. A quick Google tells me that it is natural colour, but frankly, unless it’s written on the label then I’m not convinced.
Other than that, the label has all the things that your typical enthusiast is looking for. It’s non chill-filtered, it’s got the age statement front and centre and it tells us that it’s been matured in ex-bourbon casks. It’s also bottled at 46.3%. All good then, apart from that it may or may not be wearing fake tan.
Nose
The first thing I get on the nose is pineapple. It’s slightly overripe pineapple and it immediately suggests that this is going to be a tropical whisky. It’s backed up by some orange squash and even some orange creams. There’s some Play-Doh here as well, some aniseed balls, some butter cream and some wedding cake icing. The age reveals itself through a hint of vanilla pipe tobacco.
On the whole, it’s a pleasing nose. Not overly complex, but tropical enough to make you want to dive in and taste it.
Palate
The orange creams that I picked up on the nose are also on the palate, as are the aniseed balls. There’s also some more of that pineapple, along with some stem ginger, some coconut and some watermelon (watermelon Jolly Ranchers, specifically). There’s also a tiny, tiny touch of spearmint, which adds a bit of freshness to it. Again, that vanilla pipe tobacco comes through and this time it’s more apparent. Sit with it for a while and it becomes more and more noticeable.
Whilst it’s not hugely complex, the sense of age is definitely here. If you want to try an older, bourbon matured whisky, without breaking the bank, then I’d say that this would be a good option.
The Dregs
In the intro to this review, I talked about how older whisky is different from younger whisky. Again, not better, but different. There are certain characteristics that older whiskies typically exhibit that younger expressions generally don’t.
I remember my first encounter with an older expression. The whisky in question was Glenlivet’s 18yo. When I bought it, I had this notion that, if I wanted to really understand whisky, then sooner or later, I was going to have to try some older stuff. That Glenlivet cost me £60. A bargain in today’s market. At the time, though, it felt expensive.
I also mentioned at the beginning of this review how, for the last decade or two, I’ve established a tradition of treating myself to an older expression every Christmas. This is something that’s becoming increasingly difficult to do, though, without breaking the £100 barrier.
Of course, how much we choose to spend on a single bottle of whisky depends on many different factors, but personally speaking, I typically become a bit squeamish when I start spending triple figures. In fact, during the time that I’ve been buying whisky, I can probably count on both hands the number of times that I’ve broken the hundred pound mark for a single bottle. There is simply so much good whisky out there that can be had, without going into triple figures, that I tend to just ignore most whiskies when they go beyond that.
Older whisky is different though because, there’s one thing that we’ve seen over the last five or six years, it’s had a stratospheric increase in the price of older expressions. We talk a lot about Talisker’s 18yo here on Dramface, so I won’t go there, but even a lot of very reasonably priced expressions have, or are beginning to, hit triple digits.
In that respect, Deanston’s 18yo is something of an outlier. I picked this bottle up at the beginning of December for about £85 and as I write this, you can still find it at that price. It’s CVH Spirits stablemate, Ledaig 18yo, can also be had for under £100. If you shop around, you might also be able to lay your hands on a bottle of Ancnoc 18 without breaking the £100 barrier and, if you can, it’s well worth it. But my point is that these expressions are few and far between. Generally speaking, if you want to try an older whisky in 2025, then you need to have deep pockets.
This isn’t necessarily a problem for me – and I suspect that I’m not alone here – because, having been into whisky for some time now, I’ve managed to try a lot of well-aged expressions, and I also have a handful of well-aged expressions in my personal Mackay Whisky Loch. I do wonder, though, if I was getting into whisky nowadays, whether I’d just have to resign myself to the fact that older expressions were off the table.
To my way of thinking, being able to sip and enjoy an older whisky once in a while is something of a rite-of-passage on a person’s whisky journey. These whiskies allow us to experience flavours, and sometimes levels of complexity, that younger expressions can’t always deliver.
Hopefully, this will change. We enter 2025 in choppy waters, with global sales of whisky down across the board. Whether or not we’ll see a recalibration of the market, I don’t know, but it would be nice if the price of some of these expressions began to come down.
Until that happens, I’ll continue to enjoy the older expressions that I managed to stock up on whilst they were still affordable, alongside some of the few reasonably priced older bottlings that can still be had without having to auction a kidney.
This Deanston 18yo is one such example. A solid dram, at a fair price. As enthusiasts, that’s all we ask.
Score: 7/10 FMc
Review 2/6 - Ainsley
Deanston 18yo, Official bottling, refill & first-fill bourbon matured, 46.3% ABV
£85-ish and widely available
Nose
Puff pastry, cinnamon, and mom’s apple pie. Distant leather. Light whiff of orange flower water. Dark chocolate. Candied ginger and pear juice. Nutmeg and honey. With water: veering more towards pastries, butter cookies and vanilla icing. After about 30 minutes, sandalwood makes an appearance.
Palate
Light, waxy and wood spices. Ginger syrup and apple flakes. Elegant and medium length. With water: sweeter, with cinnamon, caramel and speculoos cookies.
The Dregs
This is the first - and to date the only - whisky I bought at a distillery, back in 2022, so in this regard it has sentimental value.
Thankfully, though, I don’t have to convince myself it’s good, as this is a really great example of mature ex-bourbon single malt. There is undeniable balance between the spirit and casks. It is not as bright and fruity as some of the refill bourbon matured indies I like, yet it is no coconut bomb either.
Just a really good, solid purchase, even with the slightly raised price locally since I bought it. If I lived in the UK, this would be a permashelf bottle.
Score: 7/10 AF
Review 3/6 - Wally
Deanston 18yo, Official bottling, refill & first-fill bourbon matured, 46.3% ABV
£85-ish and widely available
For a long time now, I’ve been wondering why we don’t see many official, well-aged, fully ex-bourbon matured expressions in natural presentation? Once we mention Glencadam and Deanston, we start to stutter. Why is this?
It’s crazy that in the maelstrom of choice and brands we have in 2025 that there hasn’t been more who have tapped into this under-leveraged but very tasty style. As with so many things, it remains the preservation of independent bottlers to sate our appetites for the pure, clean and fruity spirit-forward thrills of a refill or ex-bourbon barrel.
Anyway, Deanston have our backs and I’m grateful. While their 18yo expression does lean heavily on that American oak profile, it’s not a bad thing.
Nose
Rich vanilla and clear toffee. Some floral, runny honey and muscovado sugar. With water a wee hint of a ‘green’ note appears, not quite tomato vine, but something leafy, perhaps nettles? Some warm wood spices round off a pleasant but not overly complex nose.
Palate
Sweet.
It’s a sweet whisky. It arrives in a glob of toffee and caramel swirls, before switching quickly to orange oil, vanilla, wood spice, dried red berries and jam. It’s oily and pretty thick, with a medium to long finish where mild chilli and saccharin mix with the caramel toffee. The finish is assisted by the body of the spirit, even at 46.3% it clings to the palate. I’m licking off my teeth minutes later.
The Dregs
Like Tav, I also believe the previous branding informed us this was “finished in first-fill bourbon”. I’d love to have a toot on this at 18 years old and all from refill bourbs. But, just like having a whinge that it’s a little sweet and simple, that would be me being petty; because it’s also full, thick and sticky with a really easy going nature.
Not only are these styles of mature whisky few and far between, they are also a wee bit more affordable (Glencadam’s heinously priced 18yo being an exception). It almost seems like every-blender-ever feels the need to add the ‘depth’ of sherry-matured liquid for colour and layers to their mid-teenage expressions and while that’s understandable, it’s also so bloody samey.
Thank goodness for outliers like Deanston who showcase how charming (and reasonably priced) ex-bourbon malt can actually be.
When left alone. Don’t footer with it. Don’t fake it. And please, don’t ever strip it.
Thank you, Deanston, for being one of the few. Please keep soldiering on.
Score: 7/10 WMc
Review 4/6 - Ramsay
Deanston 18yo, Official bottling, refill & first-fill bourbon matured, 46.3% ABV
£85-ish and widely available
I’ve had a soft spot for Deanston 18yo for some time. It’s the bottle which appears most on my shelves, with a few back up bottles on hand to protect myself from any potential price rises or any quality reduction. Whenever it goes on sale I usually add another if I can afford to do so.
Fortunately both the price and quality remain and the bottle I am reviewing today is the most recently purchased, which I am happy to say is just as good as I remember. The label proudly displays that it is aged in first-fill bourbon casks, but I believe it is finished in first-fill.
Nose
Orange, honey and plain candle wax immediately jumps out of the glass. That’s Deanston 18 summed up for me in its simplest terms and I absolutely love it. Beyond that I get an acidic pineapple note, floral freshly washed white sheets, vanilla and light oak.
Palate
Same again with those waxy oranges and the honey. Initially the orange is sweet and juicy, before it starts to become more bitter and slightly sour. There’s light peppery spice followed by lots of creamy vanilla, peach iced tea and drying oak and copper coins towards the finish.
The Dregs
A strong eight in my opinion. It’s not the most complex whisky you will ever try, but the wax and the oranges have a hold on me and I can’t get enough.
If you told me there was one core range whisky I had to drink for the rest of my life, then I would be struggling not to pick Deanston’s 18. Delicious.
Score: 8/10 RT
Review 5/6 - Drummond
Deanston 18yo, Official bottling, refill & first-fill bourbon matured, 46.3% ABV
£85-ish and widely available
It seems that several of us have a bottle of this on the go, and so once again you, dear Dramfacers, get a multi-review on the same bottle, while we have the hard work of getting out the microscopes, test tubes, and Bunsen burners for some whisky analysis. No, no, don’t feel sorry for us – we’ll make do!
I’ve been a fan of Deanston for several years now. Although I’ve never owned that many bottles from the distillery, the ones I have owned have been crackers. Way back in the mists of time – 2022 – a review of the 2008 12yo Oloroso matured was the first review by yours truly. And I loved it. I’ve often got a bottle of the very good standard 12yo on the go and I’ve had this bottle of the 18yo for probably a year and a half or so. So, it’s been open a little while, so let’s see where it is.
Nose
Brightly mellow…or mellow brightness. Melon, soft pineapple, dusty barley, gentle floral vanilla pods, and some very distant spices (blended allspice and nutmeg). Very nice. To play Captain Obvious for a moment, and for a guy who drinks a lot of young-ish whisky, you can smell the age on this – soft and mellow all around.
Palate
Citrus, stewed apple, melon softness, gentle barley sugar, distant oak barrel, liquified vanilla pods, wood spices, soft and light honey alongside a lemon-vanilla blend. A bit more earthiness than I remember from last time I tried this. Finish is a bit more prominent on the wood tannins, ex-bourbon cask sweetness, and slowly fading tropical fruits.
The Dregs
This is very good stuff. Yet my journey with this bottle has seen my opinion about it see-saw. I recognized it as real quality from when I first opened it. A dram one day seems really layered and complex, while the next dram a month later may be very good but somehow less complex.
Maybe it’s the bottle changing over time with more oxidation, maybe it’s my changing moods when I’m drinking it, or maybe it’s the curry I had for dinner that evening. In any case, tonight it’s certainly hitting the spot.
This is a no-brainer for a 7/10, and a high 7/10 at that, and on another night this might easily bump up to an 8/10. And if we want to talk about value for money – which we of course always do here at Dramface – this is not only one of the best core range ex-bourbon matured whiskies on the market today, this is also one of the best value 18 year old whiskies on the market today. I bought this for about £65 a year and a half ago, which is crazy good value.
Poking around online in my local market right now, I'm seeing this for between £72-£85, which is very fair for the experience here. If you’re wanting an interesting, enjoyable, 18 year old “integrity” bottled Scotch at a fair price in today’s market, you’d be hard pressed to do better than this.
Well done Deanston.
Score: 7/10 DD
Review 6/6 - Gilbert
Deanston 18yo, Official bottling, refill & first-fill bourbon matured, 46.3% ABV
£85-ish and widely available
Nose
A highly inviting and friendly nose with light citrus sweetness, wet grass and honey. There is an earthy must throughout with lots of orange trees soaking up the sun in a slightly damp orangery. Warm banana bread with butter smeared on each slice, for me this is the pinnacle of traditional Highland whisky aroma.
Palate
Liquid caramel with no E150a in sight, each sip has a wonderful, dare I say the dreaded word, smoothness to the texture. Crisp apples, warm honey and vanilla with enough oaky spice to add greater depth. A bit of a waxy, cloying finish that hangs around just long enough to inspire another pour. A carrot cake in a glass. The whisky equivalent of a perfectly made cup of tea.
The Dregs
Each time my Deanston 18yo is poured it outperforms expectations, compounded with a good slice of sentimental value as my staple for celebrations, this has become a rare permashelf bottle
Far from a dram shaking you down for attention, this is more relaxed, nuanced, inquisitive and a wonderful hug of a whisky.
A RRP that is inline, if not slightly under, other well aged single malts, it is always sweeter when it can be grabbed at nearly 30% off on a certain online retailer. It is rare that my whisky spending gets this high per bottle but this is always an investment in quality.
Score: 8/10 GG
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. FMc
Other opinions on this:
Got a link to a reliable review? Tell us.