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This year, Dewar’s turned 180. The company began in 1846 as a small merchant shop on Perth’s High Street, and it has since grown into the world’s most awarded blended Scotch whisky. An anniversary like this invites a look backward, but it also raises a fair question about the current perception of blends.
Blended Scotch is usually described as approachable and easy to enjoy, and it rarely receives the same serious attention that single malts command from collectors and enthusiasts.
Stephanie Macleod has spent much of her career pushing against that assumption. She became Dewar’s Master Blender in 2006, and she was the first woman to be named Master Blender of the Year, an award she has now won six times. Her work sits at the meeting point of two things that can pull in opposite directions, which are a respect for the house style Dewar’s has built over generations and a willingness to experiment with how whisky is made.
Talking to her about the anniversary, it becomes clear that she sees those two aims as part of the same job.
On A Mission to Prove a Point
When Macleod took over as Master Blender, she set herself a clear goal. “When I became Dewar’s Master Blender in 2006, I was on a mission: to show that a Blended Scotch could be every bit as interesting and compelling as a Single Malt,” she said. It was a response to the idea that a blend is something you reach for casually rather than something worth studying closely.
Much of that case rests on how Dewar’s ages its whisky.
The company is known for double ageing, a process it also refers to as ‘marrying’, where the blended whisky is returned to casks for a further period so the individual malt and grain whiskies settle into one another.
Macleod is also keen to stress that blending is not a mechanical exercise. “The blending process is a creative and technical discipline; we work with a vast inventory of malt and grain whiskies matured in different types of casks to create something that is greater than the sum of its parts,” she said. It is the kind of work where technical knowledge and creative instinct have to operate together.
Stephanie’s creative instinct soon became a vehicle for innovation, not at the expense of tradition, but rather allowing the Dewar’s team to build on it.
Innovation Without Novelty
That instinct comes with a caveat, which is that change has to earn its place. “Innovation for us isn’t about change for novelty’s sake, but about using science, sensory expertise, and experimentation with cask finishes to bring out new layers of flavour,” she said. The aim is to find character that ordinary maturation might not reach, while keeping the whisky recognizably Dewar’s.
The clearest example is the Double Double range, which uses a four-stage ageing process. “Techniques such as our four-stage ageing process in the Double Double series allow us to create greater depth, integration, and texture within the whisky,” she said. The whiskies are aged, blended by malt and grain separately, married, and then finished in a second type of cask, which gives Macleod more points at which to shape the final flavor.
A more unusual project is Dewar’s Double Double 21 Year Old Stone Toasted, where the casks are toasted using heated Icelandic magma stones rather than the usual open flame. “Projects like this gave us an opportunity to explore how alternative toasting methods, on different species of oak, using Icelandic Magma stones, could influence the interaction between spirit and wood, creating new layers of richness and complexity,” she said.
None of this replaces traditional maturation, and she is clear on that point. It works alongside it, adding complexity without giving up the smoothness the brand is known for.
Inside the Dewar’s House Style
I saw this side of the process firsthand when I visited Aberfeldy Distillery in June 2024. Aberfeldy is a single malt in its own right, and it is also the home of the Dewar’s blend. Part of the tour is given over to how that blending works, and Macleod compares the job to conducting a symphony. A blender picks out and matches notes across a range of different whiskies, much like a conductor guiding musicians to play in harmony.
Nearby, in the distillery museum, there is a replica blending room fronted by a shelved wall of old trade samples that Dewar’s would once have used to experiment with different combinations. Among them are a Macallan distilled in 1919, a St. Magdalene from 1924, and a Dalmore from 1909. Standing in front of that wall, you get a real sense of how much time and material goes into arriving at a house style. These historic samples also give real-world weight to Macleod describing herself as “a custodian of a house style that has been shaped over generations.”
When the Blend Won
In 2020, Dewar’s 32 Year Old, part of the Double Double series, was named Whisky of the Year at the International Whisky Competition, judged against both blends and single malts from around the world. For a blender who had set out in 2006 to show that a blend could stand alongside a single malt, it was a fitting result. “It was an incredibly proud moment for me and my team,” said Macleod.
The win also speaks to something Macleod returns to often, which is that accessibility and complexity are not opposites. “Accessibility and complexity are not mutually exclusive; in fact, I think some of the most rewarding whiskies are those that manage to achieve both,” she said. It is an idea that runs through the whole range, from the entry point of the 12 Year Old up to the older and rarer expressions, and it explains why she is comfortable with Dewar’s being known as easy to enjoy without accepting that this makes it any less serious.
Dewar’s Whisky for Every Moment
If the award settled an old argument, Macleod is just as interested in how people are drinking Scotch now. She sees a generation coming to whisky in ways that would have looked unfamiliar a few decades ago, and she welcomes it. “They are discovering whisky through cocktails, food pairings, social occasions, and experiences that perhaps look very different from previous generations,” she said. “I see that as a positive evolution.”
Some of that comes back to Dewar’s own history. The brand has long connections to the Highball, a simple mix of whisky and soda that has found a fresh audience in recent years, and it is the kind of story the company’s archive has helped bring back into the conversation. It is a reminder that the heritage and the modern appeal are not separate things, a theme worth returning to in a piece of its own.
For Macleod, the next chapter is about making room for all of it. “Whether someone is enjoying a rare-aged expression such as DEWAR’S Double Double 38 Year Old, or their very first whisky cocktail with DEWAR’S 12 Year Old, I want DEWAR’S to be recognised as a brand that is welcoming, innovative, and committed to exceptional quality,” she said.
More Than Time in the Cask
Ask Macleod what has mattered most across her career, and she does not start with technique. “Curiosity has probably been the most important quality throughout my career,” she said. “Whisky is an industry where you never stop learning. There is always another cask to assess, another flavour interaction to understand, or another perspective to consider.” Patience comes a close second, in a job where the best results can take years or decades to show themselves.
These days, a good deal of her attention goes to the people coming up behind her. She was given chances early on by people who believed in her, and she wants to do the same for the blenders she now works with. “Mentorship is central to what I do,” she said. For her, that means encouraging the team to experiment and to find their own way of working rather than simply passing on a set of rules.
It is a fitting note on which to mark 180 years. “DEWAR’S has always been about more than time in the cask; it’s about the people, the passion, and the pursuit of excellence behind every bottle,” she said.
After a career spent making the case for the blend, Macleod seems less interested in being proved right than in making sure the people who follow her have the room to keep the argument going.
Read the full article at Dewar’s Master Blender Stephanie Macleod on 180 Years and the Case for the Blend
