Blends not blands

While single malt whisky tends to get all the critical acclaim, the vast mass of sales are in the blended sector. Dominic Roskrow reports

Talk to a Scottish whisky lover and chances are he or she will be disparaging about blends. But with more than 90 per cent of all bottles sold in this sector, it can't be dismissed lightly – and nor should it be.

Blended whisky is whisky created by mixing single malt whisky with whisky made with another type of grain. Normally it is made up of several whiskies, though in theory it could contain just two – one malt and one other grain.

The whole point of blended whisky is to create a smooth and relatively easy to drink product, so by its very nature is unlikely to try and challenge the drinker in the way that a single malt might.

And consistency is the other key driving force. This means that a master blender will use a large number of basic whiskies to create a blend so that if a particular whisky runs out (and this happens regularly) he can find replace it without affecting the overall taste.

So why the poor reputation? There are three principle reasons.

Firstly, the average – and we use the term advisedly - blend is aimed at the low cost supermarket bottom shelf, and contains very young whisky, often three years and a day old; ie as young as it can be legally sold.

Secondly, much of the quality of the other whisky – often called grain whisky or grain neutral spirit – is questionable. And three, there are no rules governing the proportion of malt to grain, meaning that much of the market is made up of badly balanced and indifferent whisky, when the smooth qu...

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• By : Dominic Roskrow
• In : Drinks
• Issue : 17
• Page : 66
• Words : 2,783