Whisky: The Whisky Whiskey Rating System 2025
8 March, 2025The original the ranking system has been a solid foundation however as I’ve sampled more and more Whiskies, I’ve needed to tweak a few things early this year. In addition I’ve decided to add a new, Lower-Cost category I’m calling “1L” or “1 Low” for bottles under $50 AUD, calling it “Ultra Affordable.” There will be a series of episodes focussing on Whisky in this category.
Generally though I’ve added the concept for quality of Low, Solid and High for those drams that are on the borderline between. Simply put for each Quality Category, the lower, barely making that Quality level is a “Low,” with anything firmly in the middle of that Quality Category being a “Solid” for that level, such as “a Solid 3” for example, and anything that is almost, but not quite the next highest Quality level is a “High.” I’m denoting these as an “L” for Low and a “H” for High, with Solid not having anything after it. Hence you’ll start to see “2H” for a High 2 for Quality, and “4L” for a Low 4 for Quality and so on.
Updated Cost Table:
| Cost | Description |
|---|---|
| 1L: <$50 | Ultra Affordable! |
| 1: <$80 | Very Affordable. |
| 2: <$150 | Affordable for good Whisky. |
| 3: <$300 | Stretching the Budget a bit! |
| 4: <=$1k | Serious money. You may need serious help. |
| 5: >$1k | Mortgage your house, may lead to divorce, probably never drink it, why are you buying it? |
Updated Quality Table:
| Quality | Description |
|---|---|
| 0 | Never drinking this again, not even as a mixer. |
| 1 | Don’t drink it neat, maybe as a mixer. |
| 2 | Nice drink for some occasional variety. |
| 3 | Go to pleasant drink that makes me smile. |
| 4 | An amazing drink that makes me giggle, enjoy it slowly! |
| 5 | Incredible! Savour every drop, it makes me melt inside. |
Updated Overall Table:
| Overall | Description |
|---|---|
| Green | Generally keep some of these on hand. |
| Yellow | A few bottles in this category for something different. |
| Orange | Invest in one, only if you’re really keen. |
| Red | Probably don’t buy it. |
The updated ranking matrix below:
But in the end it’s still all subjective. Hopefully this scoring system will be a good sanity check for myself in the first instance and for others as well that are following along at home when trying to decide which bottle they should or should NOT buy.
Good luck.