Drinks of the week: summer whiskies to beat the heat

1. Arran Single Malt Scotch Whisky 10 Years Old

£44, Waitrose; Whisky Exchange; Arran Whisky

The phrase “summer whisky” might seem like a culinary oxymoron – and, for most people, the prospect of sipping a Scotch by the pool in midday 30C heat may be about as appetising as a steaming plate of beef stew and mash – but I reckon a dram at this time of the year is a much-underrated pleasure. It’s not just that I have a doggedly contrary personal preference for the more savoury-smoky kick of whisky and either soda or ginger ale, rather than, say, the perfumer's garden of G&T, as my favoured long drink when the mercury rises. I also think there’s something to be said for the calming and cooling effect of scotch served neat over ice on a warm summer’s evening. At such moments I tend to reach (although there are exceptions) for what I think of as seasonal whiskies: lighter, more gentle, softer styles with the accent on prettily aromatic floral top notes and fruity freshness rather than peaty smokiness and iodine fieriness: the tranquil heather-honeyed Arran 10 Year Old, from the eponymous west coast island, is an ideal candidate.

2. Hatozaki Japanese Blended Whisky

£33, Waitrose; Whisky Exchange; Master of Malt

My idea of summer whisky is basically the same as the category referred to fondly – and, in these abstemious days, somewhat wistfully – as “lunchtime whisky”, a phrase that conjures up a whole lost 1960s world of Mad Men-like, all-day bibulousness. The brand I remember lead protagonist Don Draper enjoying most in my recent re-watch of the series was Canadian Club (£23.50, Tesco) – a blended Canadian whisky that has been around forever (well, since 1858) and which has a genuinely summery sweet vanilla ice-cream feel. When it comes to lunchtime or summer scotch, I was impressed by the barley sugar and lemon briskness of Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Speyside Single Malt Scotch Whisky (£23) as an affordable introduction to the typically elegant stylistic traditions of Speyside, while the richer but still very deft and fruit-driven Nc’Nean Organic Highland Single Malt (£51.75, Whisky Exchange), with its candied citrus and apricot, is a beautiful summer-evening dram from one of Scotland’s new breed of small independent distilleries. Finally, another lighter candidate comes, as so often in modern whisky, from further afield: Japan’s Hatozaki is an utterly charming, floral, gently toffee-ed, subtly wheatgrassy delight.

3. Laphroaig Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky Aged 10 Years

£29.38, Asda; Sainsbury’s; Tesco

There are exceptions to the lighter, less smoky summer-whisky rule. Few drinks fit better, in like-with-like style, with a barbecue than the intensely peaty-smoky, iodine-rich scotches produced most famously on the wind-lashed island of Islay. If drinking neat whisky with food is not for you of a hot summer afternoon, the sour-smoky-spicy punch of a Penicillin cocktail makes for an enlivening, lower-abv alternative. Cocktail expert Simon Difford’s take on the original created, according to the encylopedic Difford’s Guide, by bartender Sam Ross at Manhattan’s Milk & Honey in 2005, calls for 45ml blended scotch whisky, 10ml peated single malt scotch whisky, 7.5ml ginger juice syrup, 15ml honey syrup (3 honey to 1 water) and 20ml lemon juice (freshly squeezed) to be shaken and severed over ice in an old-fashioned glass. But I found it worked just as well using a less intense, but still peaty-powerful Islay such as Aldi’s bargain Glen Marnoch Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky (£18.49) for the entire whisky component. If, however, I was after a whisky to sip solo on another idyllic summer moment – sitting by a fire of a chilly, windy evening on a British beach – Laphroaig’s ever reliable 10 Year Old is the classic sea-spray and smoke-scented dram I’d choose .