The ritual of settling down in front of a roaring fire, with a wee dram of Scotch, has sustained the nation through the cold winter nights for centuries.

But the whisky in the tumblers of British drinkers could soon be as likely to be American as Scotch, after new figures showed that Jack Daniel’s had become the nation’s biggest selling brand.

The trade magazine, The Grocer, said that the Tennessee-made spirit had usurped The Famous Grouse as the UK’s most popular whisky after its sales surged by 9.3 per cent in the last year.

This coincided with a 4.4 per cent slump in sales of the six leading blended Scotches, with sales of The Famous Grouse alone plummeting by 14.9 per cent.