Cadenhead's Whisky Shop

Unbelievable knowlegdable staff. Did not feel like a tourist trap. Incredible selection and a fun space. If you are looking to uy some scotch, and I know you are, this is your place.

Cadenhead's is the antithesis of the Scotch Whisky Experience and the other tourist traps selling mainstream whisky on the Mile. It doesn't cater to the average tourist and the folks here won't walk you through Whisky 101 - that's not what they're there for. They're here to bottle single-cask whiskies with no additives from great distillers. If you need hand-holding as you make your whisky selection, this probably isn't the right shop for you - but if you know your firewater, this can be whisky heaven.

This is the best liquor store on earth! Come here for all your whisky bottles. They do a marvelous job at Cadenhead's.

Nice shop full of all guys working when we popped round, but they recommend making an appointment and also tastings are only on Friday. Bummer. Rick Steeves had given us great hope for this place but alas the timing was not in our favour. Probably not the place for the novice whisky drinker..they suggested a shop around the corner that does tastings on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, but that still didn't align with our schedule. Lastly they suggested the walk back up the hill to the whisky experience right under the castle - eek we should have started there! This place has speciality whisky from all over in small quantities - things you won't be able to find elsewhere locally - unfortunately if you don't know what regions of whisky you like it is like going in blind to a highly specialised shop. A bit embarrassing for us!

If you are really into Scotch, at least drop into the shop to peek at some of their unique, single cask bottlings.

This is an independent bottler that will commission special bottlings of single cask Scotch, i.e. they will approach a distillery and pick out a specific barrel of Scotch that they want to purchase. So even if, say, Ardbeg doesn't make a 22 YO Scotch for retail purchase, Cadenhead's could have fallen in love with a specific 22 YO barrel from Ardbeg and want it all to themselves.

So, along with regular retail Scotch, you can find one-off bottlings of single barrels chosen from all across Scotland. Check their chalkboard on the wall for the current ones available. When I visited, all the super desirable distillery bottlings were sold out already :/ But there were still plenty to choose from.

This is a fun to learn about Scotch but even better place for the hardcore enthusiast.

Put simply, this little shop at the base of the Royal Mile in Edinburgh was the highlight of my two week European trip. If you are a whisky aficionado (like I thought I was), then you'll love this place too.

The shop is a bit cluttered, and it takes a few minutes to orient yourself. When you walk in, you're either going to notice the list of authentic whiskies to the right, or the tapped casks to the left. Either way, you can't go wrong. Careful not to trip over anything - it'll probably cost you a couple hundred £.

When I walked in, there was a family from the Netherlands buying several bottles of the in-house whisky - blended from the casks Cadenhead's gets directly from the distillers (before chill-filtering, added color, or any dilution). All their kids were waiting patiently as mommy and daddy were tasting (perhaps this has happened before???). They walked out with a very large supply.

When it was my turn, the proprietor(?) really let loose his knowledge on me. My goal was to buy a bottle for some friends of mine, and I described the kind of whisky they like, hoping to bring something fairly hard-to-get back with me to the state to gift to them. And I got the full lesson - like a Freshman taking Physics 101 from Stephen Hawking. We walked around the store as he quickly went over styles, regions, distillery ownerships, what to look for, what to avoid. I think I absorbed about 20%, enough to know that I need to learn a lot more about the whisky process than what I personally like.

After I had decided upon a bottle, I was also interested in a few tastes of their homemade stock. Hearing him talk to the couple from the Netherlands really got me interested. I think if I hadn't selected a bottle and had it in hand and ready for purchase, a free taste would have been tough to come by. The guy eyed me, eyed the bottle in my hand, eyed me again, and then begrudgingly determined that I wasn't a flight risk and that I would actually provide some income for the store that night.

Wow, so good! One taste alone was all it took for me to walk out with two more bottles. And reasonably priced, too! If there wasn't a risk of me breaking bottles flying them back in my luggage then I would have bought even more.

Like I said, if you like whisky, make this a must visit. Be prepared for a bit of attitude, or at minimum a gruff, guarded friendliness. They won't bite, but they will expect you to buy a bottle if you taste. There is also an adorable, friendly terrier named Maggie that has the run of the place. Might be the friendliest animal there!

Final tip: Bow Bar in the Old Town carries some specialty Cadenhead's bottles behind the bar. I noticed them on a whisky crawl after my purchases and couldn't resist - just had to get another fix. For each glass, I paid roughly half of what a glass of Macallan 12 would run for in America...and Cadenhead's is much, much better. Stop in to Bow Bar before you make your purchases at Cadenhead's so you know the kind of quality you're in for!

You're welcome.

I enjoy whisky though don't really know enough about it to talk particularly intelligently. Nevertheless the gentleman at Cadenhead's was friendly and helped me find something unique from Scotland to take home, based on other whisky's I've liked.

Super friendly folks and great whisky. I'm not sure what more you could ask for.

We just happened to pass by the Cadenhead shop along the Royal Mile. They have an impressive collection and a board with their scotches by region.

They're an independent bottler. The staff is knowledgeable and very friendly, clearly passionate about their scotch.

One bonus is that they have 200ml bottles, so you don't need to commit to an entire 700 or 750ml bottle, and it's not disproportionately more expensive for a smaller bottle.

Cadenhead's: Go for the atmosphere. Go for the smell. Go to learn everything there is to know about whiskey from the excellent staff.

But don't expect to actually purchase anything unless, unlike me, you find yourself with an abundance of money and no idea what you could possibly do with it. That is to say, you'll be paying for this stuff. It's partly worth it, because it's of course very high quality, but it's also partly because you're on the Mile.

Well worth a visit if you hold on to your wallet.

Friendly little shop with good selection of whiskeys at reasonable prices. Staff was knowledgeable and offered tastes of different whiskeys. I think this probably the most reasonable of the ones on the mile.