With Burns Night around the corner, Glen Garioch, one of Scotland’s oldest distilleries, is encouraging whisky enthusiasts to enjoy a single malt with their haggis to celebrate the life and poetry of the great Scottish bard, Robert Burns.

Following the ‘piping in’ of the haggis, it’s traditional at Burns suppers to toast the Scottish delicacy with a glass of whisky and Glen Garioch Founder’s Reserve is the perfect dram to complement the dish and honour Scotland’s national poet on the 25 January 2013.

Glen Garioch has been handcrafting a beautiful range of natural single malt whiskies for over 200 years and Founder’s Reserve encapsulates the distillery’s long-standing tradition of craftsmanship to produce the quintessential Highland single malt. It illustrates the distinct house character with hints of heather, a touch of spice and sweet vanilla and butterscotch notes on the nose that is a perfect balance to haggis.

Rachel Barrie, Master Blender at Morrison Bowmore said: “My favourite dram with haggis is undoubtedly Glen Garioch Founder’s Reserve. Matured in a combination of bourbon and sherry casks, bottled at 48% abv and non chill- filtered, Founder’s Reserve has a robust, full-bodied texture and a rich, rounded feel. This lengthens and amplifies each mouthful of haggis, enhancing the taste experience.

“From the first sip, thick heather honey sweetness coats the palate providing a luscious layer of sweet malt flavour into which the contrasting taste of dry peppered oatmeal melds. In the mid-palate, savour the smooth velvety malt with the wholesome gaminess of the haggis. Then feel Glen Garioch’s warm sweet and spicy kick as ginger, nutmeg and cloves build up to a warm crescendo, before lingering satisfyingly into the next mouthful.”

It is part of Burns’ mythology that he liked a drink or three. Whether this is true or not, what is undeniable is that Burns saw Scottish malt whisky as holding a special symbolic and fiscal significance for Scotland. So why not toast to one of his poems, ‘Scotch Drink’ and salute to whisky, ‘soul o’ plays and pranks’, as Rabbie Burns would have wanted?

Founder’s Reserve is available from a range of specialist whisky stores priced around £30.  Tasting notes: Non chill-filtered single malt bottled at 48% ABV

Nose: Sweet vanilla and butterscotch show the influence of North American Oak with fruitier green apple and grapefruit coming through at the rear.

Palate: At first the palate is sweet with hints of buttercream and vanilla.  As this begins to ebb, the fruitiness of the green apple skin and citrus cleanliness leaves a refreshed palate.