The Glenlivet

George Smith took out the first licence in the glen in 1824 — and carried two pistols against the smugglers he'd just undercut. So many rivals borrowed the Glenlivet name that the law eventually reserved 'The' for Smith's distillery alone. The whisky is Speyside in its floral, honeyed register: delicate, citrus-bright and endlessly polished, the second-best-selling single malt on earth and often the first bottle on a new enthusiast's shelf.