Luxury single malts vs blended scotch??

[Alandavies]

What is more sought after in the luxury Whisky category
1. Single malts like Glenmorangie
Or
2. Blended scotch eg Chivas Regal or johnny walker blue?

[whiskgeek]

I would say that "luxury" applies to expensive whiskies that people with expensive tastes like having around. So... yeah, Johnnie Blue. Or some of the more popular expensive single malts, like Macallan 18 or Glenlivet 21, but single malts are for people who know what they're looking for.

Expensive whiskies for connoisseurs, are the rare ones. Two kinds of people buy them - drinkers and speculators.

[Rodstar]

Hi Alan,

There are different grades of single malts and of blended whiskies.

Some single malts are not very nice, others are sublime.

Some blended whiskies are made of inferior whisky, the goal being to disguise a bad batch with some not so bad whisky. Other blended whiskies are a wonderful fusion of superior components with the ideal of achieving something that could not be achieved with a single malt.

In Jim Murray's Whisky Bible 2013, it is interesting to note that the highest ranked Scotch whisky of the year is a blend (Ballantine's 17 yo), but that the preponderance of high ranking whiskies are single malts.

Often older whiskies are more expensive (both blends and single malts), but there a lot of younger whiskies which are much nicer than older whiskies. Price is not always the best indicator of a good whisky.

Hope that helps!