Scotch whisky is often divided into two broad camps: single malts and blends. But legally, there are several different categories of Scotch whisky, each defined by how and where it is made.
Don’t Buy the Wrong Johnnie Walker: A Pragmatic Guide for Every Budget
Some are familiar, while others rarely get much attention. In this guide, we’ll break down each type, explain what makes it different, and recommend a bottle that offers a good introduction to the style.
Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Legally, single malt Scotch whisky has to be produced at one distillery, hence the single part. As for malt, it means the whisky must be produced from 100% malted barley.
Trending Content .tww_title_lines {
position: relative;
font-size: 24px;
line-height: 25px;
font-weight: bold;
z-index: 1;
overflow: hidden;
text-align: center;
color: #000;
font-family: arial;
display: flex;
align-items: center;
justify-content: center;
}
.tww_title_lines:before {
margin-left: -70%;
text-align: right;
}
.tww_title_lines img{
max-width: 70px;
margin-right: 10px;
}
It must also be distilled in pot stills, matured in oak casks for a minimum of three years and meet a few more technical requirements covering things such as distillation strength and minimum bottling strength.
Single malt is probably the Scotch whisky category most enthusiasts are familiar with. That doesn’t mean it is automatically better than anything else. It’s simply a particular style of whisky, and whether you prefer it depends on what you’re in the mood for.
One To Try: The Glenlivet 12 Year Old
The Glenlivet 12 Year Old is a great example of why single malt has become so popular around the world. Alongside bottles such as Glenfiddich 12 Year Old and The Macallan 12 Year Old, it is one of the foundation bottles of Scotch single malt whisky.
It’s sweet, approachable and easy drinking, making it a great introduction to the category.
Single Grain Scotch Whisky
Single grain Scotch whisky must also come from a single distillery, but unlike single malt, it isn’t restricted to 100% malted barley or pot still distillation.
Single grain whiskies are typically produced using column stills, sometimes called continuous or Coffey stills. These are very tall stills containing a series of plates and can produce spirit continuously at a much higher strength than traditional pot stills.
Despite the name, “single grain” doesn’t mean the whisky contains only one type of grain. Different cereals can be used, including wheat and corn, alongside malted barley.
Technically, you could even distill a whisky made from 100% corn in a pot still in Scotland and, provided it met the other legal requirements, it would fall under the single grain category rather than single malt because it wasn’t made entirely from malted barley.
One To Try: Loch Lomond Grainstorm
A great example of Scottish single grain whisky is Loch Lomond Grainstorm. It has a lovely, fresh, vanilla-driven style that is very drinkable on its own and also works well in cocktails if you want to see how grain whisky interacts with different modifiers.
Blended Scotch Whisky
If you take one or more single malt Scotch whiskies and blend them with one or more single grain Scotch whiskies, you’ve produced a blended Scotch whisky.
Blended whisky brands aren’t necessarily distilleries in their own right. You can’t, for example, visit the “Johnnie Walker Distillery.” Instead, malt and grain whiskies from different distilleries across Scotland can be brought together in different proportions to create a particular flavor profile.
Many blends contain a majority of grain whisky, sometimes around 70%, with the rest made up of malts from different distilleries. However, the exact recipe varies considerably from one blend to another.
One To Try: Johnnie Walker Black Label 12 Year Old
Call me biased, but I honestly believe Johnnie Walker Black Label 12 Year Old is possibly the greatest blended Scotch whisky ever made.
It’s sweet, spicy and smoky, has a solid age statement and is available all over the world. Much like The Glenlivet 12 Year Old in the single malt category, the world of whisky would be a very different place without Johnnie Walker Black Label.
Blended Malt Scotch Whisky
If you blend single malt whiskies from different distilleries together, you get a blended malt Scotch whisky.
So, if you bought a cask of Talisker and a cask of Glenfiddich and combined them, you would have a blended malt. Think of it as a blend with no grain whisky in the mix.
Doing this allows producers to combine two or more distinctive styles and create something that draws characteristics from each of them. One whisky might provide smoke, another fruit, another richness or texture.
Blended malts were once commonly described using terms such as “vatted malt” or “pure malt,” but those are no longer recognized category descriptions under Scotch whisky regulations.
One To Try: Campbeltown Loch
There are some amazing blended malts on the market right now, but my pick of the bunch would be Campbeltown Loch.
It brings together malt whiskies associated with Campbeltown’s three operating distilleries: Springbank, Glengyle and Glen Scotia. The result is a bottle that does a brilliant job of capturing the character people associate with whisky from the region.
Blended Grain Scotch Whisky
Blended grain works in much the same way as blended malt, except you’re combining single grain Scotch whiskies from different distilleries.
So, if we combined a cask of Invergordon with a cask of Port Dundas, for example, we would have a blended grain Scotch whisky.
Grain whisky is often sweeter and lighter than malt whisky, with plenty of dessert-like flavors such as fudge, vanilla, and caramel. Combining different grain whiskies can also allow one component to provide texture and mouthfeel while another contributes sweetness or a longer finish.
One To Try: Compass Box Hedonism
The bottle that helped define this category for a lot of whisky drinkers is Compass Box Hedonism, and it’s one of my favorite bottles of whisky.
It has all of those huge dessert flavors you might hope for from grain whisky and is incredibly moreish. It’s the kind of whisky that makes it very difficult not to go back for another pour.
What About Single Blended Whisky?
There’s an important distinction here: “single blended Scotch whisky” is not one of the five legally defined categories of Scotch whisky.
The term has historically been used for whisky containing both malt and grain spirit produced at the same distillery. A distillery capable of producing both styles could therefore combine its own malt and grain whiskies without bringing in whisky from anywhere else.
It can be a slightly confusing description, which is one reason you don’t see it used very often.
One To Try: Loch Lomond Single Blend
Loch Lomond is one of the best-known examples because the distillery is capable of producing both malt and grain whisky. It has released whiskies described as single blends in the past, although bottles using the terminology are far less common than examples from the five main Scotch whisky categories.
Which Style Should You Start With?
One thing I loved doing when I was getting into whisky was trying the different styles side by side. You can smell the differences, particularly between malt and grain whisky, and you can feel the textural differences created by different production methods before you even start comparing the flavors.
If you and a few friends want to put some money together and buy a bottle from each category, go for it. Alternatively, find a good whisky bar or festival where you can try several styles without committing to full bottles.
It’s a great way to understand just how different the whiskies made in Scotland can be.
Read the full article at Every Scotch Whisky Category, And One Whisky To Try From Each Of Them
