A lot of the whisky conversation today centres around single malt (a proportion as high as 90 per cent sounds plausible). Emails flood the inboxes of the whisky press to highlight new malts from Macallan, Talisker, or Aberfeldy. Tastings and whisky festivals generally celebrate single malts, while social media is flooded with accounts praising its virtues. Blends are few and far between. Tellingly, even those who don’t pretend to know much about whisky will confidently proclaim that “single malts are better than blends”.
And yet, depending on the source, single malt whisky accounts for only 10 or 11 per cent of the Scotch whisky industry’s sales. That is a lot more than it once was, but it remains relatively diminutive. There is a distinct discrepancy between the copious attention showered on single malts and the importance of blended whisky to not just the whisky industry’s history and financial health but also almost everyone’s whisky journey.
Johnnie Walker Black Label and Ballantine’s were among the first bottles I bought. I remember the decadence of sipping a 15-year-old Dimple. My first splurge was on a bottle of Chivas Regal 18 Years Old; I can still vividly recall it sitting on the top shelf at my local off-licence. Handing over that much money for a single bottle of alcohol felt uneasy at the time, but the reward came once I uncorked it at home.
Blends are the backbone of the industry. The worldwide reputation of Scotch whisky was built by the likes of Alexander Walker, Tommy Dewar, Matthew Gloag, and William Teacher. Their brands are woven into the fabric of whisky to this day. Blends are the glue, the giants that paved the way. Single malt whisky stands on their (very tall) shoulders. Frankly, the vast majority of my drinks cabinet is now stocked with single malt whisky, but looking back, blends were a gateway to whisky heaven.
The blends listed here need little introduction but deserve our respect, and then some.
Famous Grouse
Officially, the unicorn is Scotland’s national animal (even if it doesn’t exist), but one could be forgiven for thinking it was the grouse. These birds are found almost everywhere in Scotland, except perhaps for the urban areas of the Central Belt. And one, the Famous Grouse, permeates backbars and drinks cabinets throughout the country. It is said to be Scotland’s favourite whisky, or the best-selling at least. The original logo was designed by founder Matthew Gloag’s daughter Phillipa. An evolved version still adorns every bottle, whether it is the original Famous Grouse, the peatier Smoky Black, or the sherry-forward Famous One.
White Horse
Nicknamed ‘Restless Peter’ by his peers, Peter Jeffrey Mackie was said to be “one-third genius, one-third megalomaniac, and one-third eccentric”. Or at least that’s how Sir Robert Bruce Lockhart described him. Mackie registered the White Horse brand in 1891, naming it after the former White Horse Cellar Inn in Edinburgh, a business established by his family in the 17th century. (The Mackies were involved in another Scotch whisky business — Lagavulin.)
Well over a century in, White Horse Blended Whisky persists as a highly recognisable brand. It may not be as omnipresent as some of the truly high-powered blended whiskies but is widely available nonetheless. The whisky boasts a relatively high malt content and has a peatiness reminiscent of Lagavulin. In more recent years, mid-century bottles have started fetching hefty prices at auction. These older releases included spirit from not just Lagavulin, but likely also Craigellachie, Cragganmore, and Malt Mill, Mackie’s short-lived Laphroaig challenger.
Dewar's
Here is a case of the old informing the new. Master blender AJ Cameron first introduced the double-ageing process to Dewar’s back in 1890, when the company was still led by founder John Dewar’s sons, Tommy and John Alexander. Current master blender Stephanie Macleod continues to champion double ageing.
In 2019 the brand launched a premium range, Dewar’s Double Double Series, with a four-stage ageing process pioneered by Macleod “for ultimate smoothness”. Dewar’s White Label, first created 125 years ago, remains the company’s flagship blend. It is one of the classic Scotch blends, although the brand has demonstrated an adventurous streak in recent years — rum, port, mezcal, Calvados, and mizunara casks have all been used for finishing.
Cutty Sark
Cutty Sark Blended Scotch Whisky is and always has been especially big in the United States, but with good reason. Launching a brand targeted at American whiskey drinkers in the 1920s, the heyday of US Prohibition, does not seem opportune. It should not have worked, and yet Cutty Sark is one of whisky’s greatest success stories of the 20th century.
On 23 March 1923, the partners of London-based bottler and retailer Berry Bros & Rudd saw an opportunity most overlooked. They created a lighter style of blended Scotch whisky specifically to appeal to American drinkers. Cutty Sark was smuggled into the US, quite possibly by infamous rum runner Bill McCoy. It became a success in part because Cutty Sark was a new brand. Other Scotch whiskies such as White Horse, Johnnie Walker, and Black & White already had a presence before Prohibition, making their bottles more vulnerable to refilling with inferior moonshine. Once Prohibition was repealed in 1933, Cutty Sark was a well-established brand.
Today Cutty Sark is owned by Glen Turner Company, a subsidiary of French group La Martiniquaise. The Cutty Sark Original still prides itself on lighter, accessible flavour characteristics, but there is now a range of whiskies including the Prohibition, a nod to the brand’s roots. Its bold yellow label, the result of an honest printing mistake, prevails as an important trademark 100 years on.
Teacher's
There was nothing frivolous about William Teacher, which can’t be said of all founding fathers of the Scotch whisky industry. At one point he was the biggest licence holder in Glasgow, owning 18 workingmen’s pubs. The heavily branded bars were ahead of their time. The barmen had to closely follow manuals. Smoking wasn’t allowed — a novelty at the time. Buying of rounds wasn’t permitted, and there was zero tolerance for anyone being the least bit tipsy.
These policies provide interesting insight into the soul of a no-nonsense brand. Now part of Suntory Global Spirits (previously named Beam Suntory), Teacher’s will probably never be a flashy brand, but it does deliver on quality. Teacher’s Highland Cream enjoys a 45 per cent malt content, significantly higher than most standard blends. Its smoky heart comes courtesy of Ardmore, a Highland distillery established in 1898 by William Teacher & Sons. This blended whisky provides a gentle (but firm) introduction into the world of peat.
Chivas Regal
Most if not all traditional blended whiskies were once created to be accessible and available. They were designed to appeal to the masses — a more palatable alternative to idiosyncratic malt whiskies. But Chivas Brothers had other ideas and created a luxury blended whisky before these kinds of releases became de rigueur. In 1909 it launched the Chivas Regal 25 Years Old, designed specifically for members of the high society in the US and Canada, countries with booming economies at the time.
While other blended whisky brands have since also embraced the luxury market, Chivas Regal was there first. If anything, Chivas Regal traversed in the opposite direction, launching a 12-year-old when stocks were tight during the Second World War. The luxury allure endures, but Chivas Regal now too has a mass audience.
Johnnie Walker
This is far from an exhaustive article, but it would not be complete without mentioning Johnnie Walker. The best-selling Scotch whisky by some margin, the brand is as ubiquitous as they come, available in any bar, supermarket, shop, or wherever you get your whisky. Johnnie Walker is Scotch whisky, but Scotch whisky is also Johnnie Walker; the two are almost synonymous. What started in 1867 with Alexander Walker’s Old Highland Blend has now evolved into a range of colour-coded labels that is as simple as it is ingenious: Red, Black, Green, Gold, and Blue. Smart pop-culture collaborations and its award-winning Edinburgh experience have introduced Johnnie Walker to an even broader audience. Parent company Diageo went all out with its Game of Thrones whiskies — the hit television show inspired a collection of single malts as well as several Johnnie Walker editions, including White Walker and A Song of Ice.
