Unless you are going through emotional turmoil or some other very specific reason, drinking whisky directly from the bottle is generally unaccepted, as a rule you will be using some kind of drinking vessel, if you are on a crusade it might look something like this, thinking about it, this chalice may be used during emotional turmoil;

The Holy Grail (Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade)

Before I continue, Im not making light of Emotional Turmoil, if you need support then please seek help, be it from a friend, family member, work colleague, qualified professional, charity or The Samaritans (link).

There are lots of drinking glasses on the market that can be used for enjoying whisky.

The standard vessel you will encounter when in a pub, restaurant or hotel may be the tumbler

Plain or detailed like the one above, they do have a purpose, they are large enough to take ice and/or a small mixer, however, I think I speak for most (excluding #TumblerClub(link)) when I suggest that the humble tumbler isn't the best drinking vessel for enjoying your favourite whisk(e)y.

The glassware market has, for a few years, been acutely aware of the ever growing evangelism for our favourite spirit. But before glass, wood was the material of choice, as it was cheap, readily available and could be simply crafted into the necessary shape.

The first such vessel that many of you will be aware of is the Quiach, which was derived from ‘cuach’ – a Gaelic word that meant ‘cup’.

A Quiach - This one available from Loch Loy Design (link)

 First believed to be used in the 16th century, the Quiach has had many design changes, been made from differing woods, metal and glass.

Then in the 19th Century the Tumbler made its first appearance for enjoying whisky.

However, it was only very recently, 1992 in fact, that it is believed, the very first glass designed for nosing and tasting whisky made its appearance, The Reidel. (Reidel is the name of the Glass Manufacturer)

Selected by a panel of whisky experts at the Reidel Headquarters in Switzerland. There were 18 different glasses in the judging selection, each designed with enjoying whisky are its heart.

What won was a glass that was based on a truncated stem, with an elongated, thistle-shaped body. The glass, known as the vinum, became a popular whisk(e)y drinking glass. 

Riedel Vinum Glass (link)

Since the Riedel Vinum came to market, coupled with the explosion in popularity for enjoying whisky, other glass manufacturers and whisky enthusiasts have tried their hand at developing a whisk(e)y glass.

The Glencairn (link), The Norlan (link), The Copita, The Sniffer, The Tuath (link), The Liath (link).

The latter, The Liath is possibly the most recent to the market.

Most of us, if not all, will have a Glencairn Glass.

It is possibly everyones glass of choice for enjoying whisky, but is it the best glass for whisky?

Preference is purely subjective, there are lots of individual factors involved in deciding what is important, we assign a different level of importance on each of these little details, such as what one person is willing to pay for a single glass, that said, we can have a little fun trying to identify the best glass.

I chose five different drinking glasses to determine which I preferred, from the limited selection I have.

From left to right we have:

A Shot Glass 
The Sniffer
The Liath 
The Glencairn
The Tumbler 

Each glass had exactly 20ml added from my Infinity Bottle (A little bit of every whisky I have opened, most recently some heavily peated and sherry bomb whisky was added).

The benchmark standard is the Glencairn Glass.

	Shot Glass	Strong smell of alcohol however virtually no burn. Generic notes of sweet caramel & Vanilla	Price: Cheap £1	Summary: Not good for nosing a whisk(e)y, useful for a drinking game or measuring for cocktails.
	Sniffer	Alcohol burn quite early with nose going in, but not much smell of alcohol. Sweet Caramel & vanilla notes, some floral elements	Price: Usually found in supermarket tasting sets but can be found for around £3-£5	Summary: Decent job at nosing & offers the same tasting experience as a Glencairn. However, it isn't as good as the Glencairn for nosing. Holding the glass also presents a challenge if you don't want to warm the whisky with your hands.
	Liath Glass	Virtually no alcohol burn & no smell of alcohol. Floral notes dominate with honey vanilla & caramel. Then traces of peat smoke appear.	Price: £8.99 when I purchased with an fathers day discount, usually £9.99	Summary: The nosing picked up more notes than the prior glasses. Holding the glass could be a problem, the stem is too short to hold, holding via the bowl is an option if you don't mind warming the whisky, however, I hold mine near the lip.
	Glencairn	Some alcohol burn & alcohol smell. Caramel & vanilla present but more fruit that floral. The aroma appears more concentrated than previous glasses.	Price: Varies. A plain Glencairn from the official site is £7, there are many colours, branded versions and crystal cut.	Summary: Did a good job for nosing the whisky, however, didn't reveal some of the more hidden notes like smoke.
	Tumbler	Very little smell coming off the glass, even burying my nose right in. Caramel was the only thing detected.	Price: Varies at the cheapest about £1, upwards to how high do you want to go.	Summary: Since tasting is also about the nosing experience, a tumbler doesn't give a nosing experience.

Nosing Rank: 1st to 5th

Liath
Glencairn
Sniffer
Shot Glass
Tumber

We move onto tasting.
Since the Shot Glass & Tumbler fail at nosing, they are eliminated from the tasting.
The Sniffer is very similar to the both glasses with its bowl shape, really this is between the Liath and Glencairn.

With the Glencairn, do you put your nose in? do you place your nose on the upper rim?

Glencairn Nosing
When tasting, the only action controlling the amount of liquid you receive is by how much you tip the glass, potentially you could get too much (which to be honest happens more than I wish to admit).

Liath Glass
Due to the size of the lip, you can't help putting your nose in when tasting, this enhances the taste experience as you are getting both sensory experiences at the same time.
Also due to the lip and the concave bulge, you need to keep tipping the glass in order for the liquid to move over the bulge towards the lip, this happens to give the perfect sipping measure (for me) of whisky, not too much not too little.

Tasting Rank 1st to 5th

Liath
Glencairn
Sniffer
Tumber
Shot Glass

Finally were are onto price and quality.

The Glencairn is a proven glass, I love the Glencairn, I will continue to use the Glencairn, not only because it looks good, but its affordable should it break - On this point Ive broken 2 in 5 years, the first shattered as I was dunking it in hot soapy water and the second developed a crack after being dropped. Being a base heavy glass, depending on the surface you drop it on, it could survive a fall without damage.
The Glencairn is readily available, almost all whisky retailers sell or have available a Glencairn, quite often branded, which is the next point, most distilleries have branded Glencairns, the two go hand in hand.

Finally, there is also available a mini Glencairn, which is a little cheaper to buy, offers the same experience as the larger regular Glencairn, however, could be a challenge for those with a slightly bigger nose.

The Liath Glass stands a little shorter than the Glencairn. Its a little more expensive than the Glencairn, but its considerably cheaper than the alternatives that Ive touched on such as the Norlan Glass, which I have tried, but at £25 is too expensive and doesn't offer the experience of the Glencairn, the rim of the Norlan is too thick and for me makes the glass off-putting.

The Liath Glass in my test offered a better nosing and tasting experience than the Glencairn.
While it does need to be held differently, the rim does offer a safe and worry free holding point and keeps the whisky from being warmed. The Liath looks delicate, however, its just as sturdy and well made as the Glencairn, time will tell how it holds up to everyday use.
It looks elegant, almost like a miniature vase.

I would like to see the stem of the Liath made larger, to offer more of a substantial stem to hold the glass, if for any reason, cleaning finger prints off the glass - It does get dirtier on the outside, faster than a Glencairn.
But this is a minor point as I use multiple glasses in an evening.

For me the Liath gets the win as the best whisky glass.

I will continue to use the glass, but with some of my favourite whiskies, see if I can coax new nosing notes and experience the whiskies in a new way.

Finally, like many people, I don't stick to using just a Glencairn, I choose a glass depending on the drink.
A Jack Daniels or some other bourbons go in a tumbler, sometimes with ice, a blended scotch or an everyday sipper may go in the sniffer, a new whisky that I haven't tried goes in a Glencairn, maybe the Liath will be for my favourite whiskies or those whiskies I want to re-explore.

Time will tell. But Im very impressed by the Liath.