| Shortly after touchdown at Heathrow Airport, I had another flight waiting for me at the Connaught. This one consisted of a trio of Singleton single malts, each aged for 42 years. The enduringly popular Scotch brand had just launched its Gourmand Collection in conjunction with Nicolas Rouzaud—a world-renowned pastry chef who recently opened a patisserie within the five-star hotel in the heart of London’s Mayfair. During an exclusive tasting, each of the three new whiskies was paired with its respective namesake dessert: Fig & Chocolate Ganache, a Scotch heavy in clove and coffee, benefiting from a finish in European oak as well as heavily toasted Spanish wine casks; Caramelised Crème Brûlée, a coconut-rich pour influenced by time spent in former grand cru casks; and Black Cherry Gâteau, using ex-amarone casks to mine dark plum and red stone fruit from the depths of its full, 91-proof body.  Three new single malt whiskies make up Singleton’s Gourmand Collection, each named for a dessert: Fig & Chocolate Ganache, Caramelised Crème Brûlée and Black Cherry Gâteau. Source: Singleton Until May 5 the whiskies will be paired with Rouzaud’s desserts at specialty spirits merchant Justerini & Brooks. Tickets are listed online at £275 ($366) per person. But if you can’t make it to London by then, the set of three, 500-milliliter Scotches is set to sell in the US for a grand total of $9,000. Later in the afternoon, I explored more of the city’s legendary bottle shops. At such places as Berry Bros. & Rudd—a 327-year-old retailer that remains family-owned to this day—or the Great Portland Street outpost of the Whisky Exchange, I was able to spy some notable new releases still available at close to original pricing. The Tamdhu 43-year-old was a memorable example: Robust, mahogany-tinted and matured exclusively in oloroso-seasoned sherry casks, it sings with molasses, dark chocolate and dried dates. The limited-edition Speyside single malt just premiered stateside, but good luck finding it on shelves at its intended $16,000 price tag.  The Tamdhu 43-year-old. Photographer: Chris Lomas Another notable standout during my reconnaissance: the Accolade 54-year-old from celebrated independent bottler Duncan Taylor. After more than a half-century in sherry-seasoned oak casks, the slightly peaty liquid—sourced from Highland Park—accumulates a rounded clove spice, balanced by creamy confection in a slow-fading finish. It’s presented in a stunning arrowhead-shaped decanter, enrobed by a customized copper cradle. Only 158 bottles hit the market back in September of last year. But somehow this one is still here in London, near its original offering price of $28,700.  Duncan Taylor’s Accolade 54 in a handmade decanter. Source: Duncan Taylor Before nightfall, I checked into stately quarters at the Raffles London, a five-star property that opened in late 2023 within the historic Old War Office building in Whitehall. Throughout its Edwardian Baroque-style corridors, the hotel hides all sorts of glistening gems for deep-pocketed whiskyphiles. There’s the expansive Japanese offerings of Kioku, a dual concept unfolding across a lobby-level izakaya and rooftop sushi bar, as well as the Ian Fleming-inspired Spy Bar, a subterranean speakeasy that disallows pictures but encourages tastings from an exhaustive library of liquids that at the upper end costs five figures per pour. On this particular evening, the polished Guards Bar & Lounge, not far from the check-in counter, was the only address for me. It was there that the new Bowmore ARC-54 was released. The $80,000 whisky from the storied Islay producer leverages a golden-ratio-inspired combination of liquids from both second-fill European oak sherry butts and third-fill American oak hogsheads. It’s an assertive smattering of spice-rack complexity, forming seamless fusion among citrus pith, candied ginger and chimney smoke. And it rides out in a streamlined triangular decanter, informed by the edges of Aston Martin’s Valkyrie supercar.  The Bowmore ARC-54 is part of a partnership between Bowmore and Aston Martin. Source: Bowmore / Aston Martin Still thirsting for more magic the following day, I took the tube toward Park Royal. This historically industrial area of North West London is home to Bill Amberg Studio, a preeminent purveyor of bespoke leatherwork. Over the past decade, the studio has been commissioned by some of the biggest names in booze to craft elegant packaging for one-of-one Scotch releases. Most recently that involved a duo of frustratingly rare 38-year-old expressions from the Macallan, independently bottled by East Asia Whisky Co. Amberg developed a novel pedestal upon which to display the two decanters. The first is a firm sherry-influenced offering, tickling the tongue with cacao nib and cherry cola. Beside it is a mizunara-aged twin that layers cedar smoke atop treacle, the result of an additional 10-month finish in Japanese oak. A previous release from this exact series has already fetched £15,000 at auction. But here in the industrial outskirts of London, I was enjoying sample pours paired with pita and hummus. Thankfully I saved room for afternoon tea at the Rosewood London. The 12-year-old property was built into a local landmark and already holds an internationally recognized monument to mixology: Scarfe’s Bar. An outsize wall of the palatial parlor is dedicated to a wide array of brown spirits, which can all be enjoyed neat, of course.  The Dark Secret cocktail at Scarfe’s Bar features Eagle Rare 10, Noilly Prat, pear and toasted black walnut. Source: Scarfe’s Bar But it’s best to see what the experts can arrange in cocktail form, especially in this moment, when the watering hole had just revealed its newest menu. Multiple Scotch-inflected concoctions are on offer, with the primary highlights including a whisky sour variation built with Macallan 12, cantaloupe and verjuice, as well as a savory blend of Glen Grant single malt with chocolate wine and mushroom-infused sherry. Anywhere else on Earth, encountering this much innovative Scotch in such a short period of time would be nothing short of a miracle. In London it was just another weekend. London’s Most Whisky-Centric Hotels | One hundred twenty guest rooms, a half-dozen memorable venues for sipping world-class Scotch. The subterranean Spy Bar sells a vintage Macallan from the early ’80s for £10,000 per pour. We’d love to tell you more … but, you know. (Rooms start at $1,054 per night.) Scarfe’s Bar holds one of the widest selections of whisky anywhere in London: more than 400 separate marks in total. The collection includes limited-edition bespoke bottlings such as Decadence, an English single malt crafted in partnership with the award-winning Lakes Distillery. (Rooms start at $800 per night.) Rising eight floors above Leicester Square in the heart of the West End, the Londoner holds several posh locales for spirited engagements. The Japanese-themed rooftop bar is a personal favorite. It comprises a peerless collection of age-statement stock from Suntory. Additionally there’s a lower-level speakeasy, typically reserved for residents, that houses one of the more exclusive whisky cabinets in the city. Occasionally it opens to hotel guests as part of limited-time promotions. (Rooms start at $420 per night.) This week, our colleagues at Bloomberg Businessweek looked into how theme parks from Disney to the new Epic Universe are embracing horror—and not just at Halloween. People like to be scared, it turns out, and we maybe even identify with these monsters as fellow outcasts. “The bad guys are doing well right now,” said Dennis Speigel, a theme park consultant based in Cincinnati.  A scene from Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment at the Epic Universe theme park in Orlando. Photographer: Thomas Simonetti/Bloomberg | 
