Ask most people what types of whisky they prefer and ‘Single Malt Scotch’ will almost certainly steal the top spot. The ‘Scotch’ bit is obvious, or it is to most people anyway: I was once asked to recommend some “American Scotches.” Hmm, moving on. But what about ‘Single Malt’? Quite simply, it's just whisky distilled in copper pot stills from malted barley at one distillery which has been aged or ‘matured’ in oak casks for at least three years and a day. Happily, that leaves distillers with a fair amount of room to make their own mark on the resulting spirit. And experiment they do: 2020 has seen a deluge of new malts crafted in novel ways hit the (mostly virtual) shelves.