In recent years, whiskey aficionados have achieved the kind of stature more often associated with oenophiles. These spirits obsessives are as passionate about their favorite small-batch bourbons and special cask-finish scotches as wine lovers are about the best Napa Cabernets. And like their wine-sipping cousins, serious whiskey collectors understand that premium glassware can elevate the experience. Our favorite whiskey sippers are rocks or double-Old Fashioned glasses.
Rocks glasses have wide rims to allow room for the rocks, aka the ice. And if you’re partial to a slow melting cube so too much water doesn’t dilute your dram, you’ll want to be sure one of those giant rounds of ice can fit into the glass. If you take your bourbon neat, the wide rim allows for the gentle and more delicious aromas to waft out. Narrower rims can concentrate the scent of alcohol, which can shift the whole experience of drinking a cask-strength beauty from delicious to downright unpleasant.
And if you’re going to buy new barware, make it worthy of your best bottles. That Macallan 18 needs something respectable. The four we’ve highlighted here should live up to it nicely.