Blending blocks
Drink writer of the year Dave Broom investigates what exactly makes up a blend- and how blenders are steering away from old-school terminology to describe their art
It all started at a distillery (names donât really matter here, as we will see). A discussion that was meant to be about whether we can talk terroir in whisky had, in the way of these things, ended up with a discussion of how important specific malts are to certain blends.
God, I have an exciting life sometimes.
Two of the assembled throng were saying something along the lines of: âBlend X always has a high percentage of malt Y in its makeup. Itâs different for Blend Y but the principle is the same. These two malts make up the core of the blend.â The blender looked pained.
âWell â¦â he started. âNot quite. Theyâre there, donât get me wrong but we donât think in terms of percentages, but flavours. Theyâll provide some of the flavour we want but always the same amount? Not necessarily.â Cue a look of panic in the questionersâ faces. âBut thatâs what weâve been told! Thatâs what weâve been telling everyone who comes on one of our consumer evenings.â You can understand their distress. But as the discussion continued so a new picture of blending came into focus, a way of looking at how blends are created not by following a recipe but in terms of flavour. Call them flavour blocks, or groupings, as Jim Beveridge prefers to call them. I contacted a few blenders and asked them about this idea of groups, of whether names and numbers really matter. âIf someone says to me is a blend which contains 40% malt better than one with 20% Iâd say t.....
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By Dave Broom
Section : Whisky Production
Page number : 38
