Blended Whisky

The triumphant advance of Scotch whisky was only made possible through the cheap industrial production of alcohol from unmalted grain. The honour belongs to the family of the Haig's. Their Robert Stein invented the patent still in 1826. This type of still is also called Continuous Still due to the uninterrupted way you produce alcohol. The advantage is easily visible. You produce continuously whisky without having to stop the process for cleaning purposes. Single Malt Whisky produced in single batches and you have to clean all production equipment between each single run. The second advantage is the lacking need for expensive malted cereals. The whisky from Patent Stills is called by its major ingredient Grain Whisky.

Only malt whisky existed before the patent stills appeared. Whisky was very seldom known outside Scotland itself. Aeneas Coffey improved the distillation process in the following years and the Patent Still got its second name Coffey Still.

The immense success of the Blended Whisky let the distillery proprietors took aim at each other (Pot Still vs. Coffey Still). In 1909 a law was passed by a royal committee, that alcohol from unmalted grain may also bear the name whisky.

One of the first blenders were Andrew Usher and William Sanderson, who mixed cheap grain whisky with malt whisky and created the first blended whiskys. To the first brands belonged the following, which are still available today: Black & White, Dewar's, Haig, Vat 69 and White Horse.

The extraordinary of the Blended Scotch Whisky is the marriage of smooth grain whisky with intensive malt whisky. The smooth grain whisky makes the malt whisky bearable for the general tongue. Blended Whisky is a concession of the Scottish people to the taste of the mass of people.

It doesn't matter which type of grain is used for the whisky. All type of starch is suitable. But you always need a little bit of malt, because only malt contains the enzyme which converts starch into sugar. In the past decades the distillers used most often corn (maize). Today wheat is the cheapest grain on the world market and therefore used nearly exclusively. Corn (maize) is still used a lot in the production of Kentucky Straight Bourbon. Bourbon consists of more than 51% corn. If a Scottish distiller talk of unmalted grain he mentions most often barley, because he wants to position himself further away from the Bourbon and closer to the malt whisky.

Whisky from unmalted grains in produced in a higher strength than malt whisky from pot stills. It contains less esters which are responsible for the aroma. Grain whisky tastes more neutral. But taboo is neutral alcohol from potatoes or melasse. The British government allows only alcohol from grains to be called whisky, if it has matured more than three years in oak wood. The age of the grain whisky also counts for the age on the label of the bottle.

Malt whisky is still produced by craftsmanship, whereas grain whisky shows up with an industrial production. There are 85 producing malt whisky distilleries in Scotland (data from 1999) but only half a dozen big grain distilleries. Who has ever seen the Warehouses of Chivas or the Blackgrange Bond at Cambus may have an imagination how much grain whisky is produced. Under the 100 best sold spirits in the world are 14 blended Scotch whiskys.

The Grain Distilleries

• Caledonian - (partly dismantled)
• Cambus - United Distillers
• Cameron Bridge - United Distillers
• Carsebridge - United Distillers
• Dumbarton - Allied Domecq
• Girvan - Wm Grant & Sons
• Invergordon - Whyte & Mackay - Fortune Brands
• Inver House -
• North British - IDV/Robertson & Baxter
• Port Dundas - United Distillers
• Strathclyde - Allied Distillers
• Tomatin - Takara Shuzo Co und Okura & Co Ltd, Japan
• William Lawson - Bacardi & Company Limited

90% of the malt production goes into the creation of blends. If you keep in mind that this malt whisky represents only 10% to 15% of the blends, then you have an imagination, how big these grain distilleries are.

The malt content in blends start at 10%. Johnnie Walker Red Label contains app. 15%; Johnnie Walker Black Label has app. 35%. Chivas Regal has 50% malt content and one of the blends with the biggest malt part in it is the Irish whisky Bushmills 1608 (80%). The biggest share of blends will contain 10% to 15% of malts. But each malt is different. You need intensive malts to achieve a big effect with little mass. Lowland malts also have an important meaning for the blends. They are the connecting link between the grain and the Highland and Islay malts.

The process of blending the single kinds of malt whisky with grain whisky requires the highest skills and experience from the blend master. The blend master has a source of more than 100 different malt whiskys. Typically he uses only 30 to 40 for a particular blend. Ten of them are used in higher bigger volumes. The other 20 to 30 are only used for fine tuning the taste. There are very rare and expensive malts, which are made of 100 different malts.

A blend is built up systematically. At first the blend master selects approximately 10 malts. They are called the lead whiskys. These whiskys determine the base taste of the blend. The origins of the malts are typically all regions of Scotland (Lowlands, Highlands, Islands). The malts from the Highlands take care of the base taste and the depth of the blend. The malts from the Isle of Islay bring in the peaty character. The malts from sherry casks and the malts from the Lowlands give the whisky the smooth and fruity notes.

Each lead whisky gets a comparable whisky at its side. This is done for security reasons. If you loose a whisky due to a takeover by another company or the closing of a particular distillery, you will have a replacement ready. The high volume brands often have two or three substitutes for their major lead malts to guarantee production to all times.