My goal is to educate people on some of the basic concepts around whiskies in a way that will help them make smart whisky buying decisions. Often I get asked - "I need to gift a whisky to my friend, what should I get?" or during the holidays, "My boss is a whisky geek, I know nothing about whiskies, what should I gift them?". I can go on and on about the type of questions I get on this topic. Sometimes people will make a video call, when they are browsing the whisky aisles in the liquor store or on their Costco run, and would want me to advise them on what to buy.
Another objective of this blog is to collect feedback from the people who have taken my recommendation and somehow capture it here. This will further help people make a better decision on what to purchase. I will also attempt to post information about what I am enjoying these days and what is on my wish list.
But before we go any further some basics -
How often do we all get tripped up on what the difference between Single Malt or Single Grain is? How about is it scotch or whisky (or whiskEy)? what does it mean when a bottle says blended scotch? What is peaty whisky? Once again we can go on and on with these questions, so lets define some basic terms here -
SINGLE MALT
Single: one distillery.
The ‘single’ refers to the number of distilleries the whisky in the bottle is from.
Single cask means the whisky comes from just one cask but single malt simply means that the whisky is made at one distillery but is generally a vatting of multiple casks – unless stated otherwise – combined after maturation for bottling.
Malt: this refers to the ingredients of the whisky. Single malt Scotch whisky must contain only malted barley. That’s it. Peated or unpeated, it must be 100% malted barley.
SINGLE GRAIN
Single: one distillery. Again – the ‘single’ here simply means the contents of your bottle is distilled at one distillery, even though it comes from multiple casks.
Grain: While malt whisky must be 100% malted barley, grain whisky can be made from any cereal grain. In Scotland this includes small amounts of malted barley in combination with another grain.
BLENDED SCOTCH WHISKY
As mentioned earlier, different whiskies are often blended together. The need for blending arose because, at the time, single malt scotch had a very strong and raw flavour that not everyone enjoyed. Through blending, milder flavors were created and that appealed to a wider market. Today, about nine out of every 10 bottles of scotch sold worldwide are sold as ‘blended scotch whisky’. Pre-2009, any mix of scotch whiskies could qualify as a blended scotch. However, the Scotch Whisky Regulations now state that blended scotch whisky has to contain a combination of one or more single malt scotch whiskies and one or more single grain scotch whiskies.
In summary -
Single Malt Scotch: Scottish whisky produced by a single distillery. Can only be made using barley and water.
Single Grain Scotch: Scottish whisky produced by a single distillery. Can be made using any cereal, including wheat, corn or rye.
Blended Whiskies:
Blended Scotch Whisky – a blend of one or more single malt scotch whiskies with one or more single grain scotch whiskies from different distilleries.
Blended Malt Whisky – a blend of two or more single malt scotch whiskies from different distilleries.
Blended Grain Whisky – a blend of two or more single grain scotch whiskies from different distilleries.
For a whisky to be called scotch, it must be by law, distilled in Scotland according to a set of specific rules.