BLENDED BRILLIANCE

Whisky expert Blair Bowman is excited to uncover some excellent blended malt whiskies that are full of flavour and good value for money

Eagle-eyed readers of this column will recall that I last reported on blended malt whisky in Scottish Field’s October 2018 issue. At the time I noted that ‘Blended malt whisky seems to be on the up at the moment’, and I am happy to report that my observations were correct.

Blended malt whisky, as the name would suggest, is a blend of more than one single malt whisky.

(Of course this is not to be confused with blended whisky, a blend of multiple single malt whiskies and single grain whiskies).

Historically, it has been an underappreciated whisky category, with just a few key producers using the spectrum of flavours available in single malt whisky to create some truly stellar drams. Beyond the likes of Compass Box, Wemyss and Douglas Laing – who have championed blended malts in their core range for some time – the trail largely ran cold.

However, it is now on the up, and the likes of Monkey Shoulder, an unapologetically playful brand that was introduced in 2005, have paved the way for others to emerge. Competing alongside them is a Diageo-backed venture called Copper Dog Whisky, named after the bar in the Craigellachie Hotel in Speyside, who launched a blended malt of eight Speyside whiskies which hit the shelves in 2016.

Hidden deep in the 2020 Annual Report from Diageo it was disclosed that they had acquired the remaining 70% of shares in Copper Dog. The report now also lists Copper Dog as part of Diageo’s ‘Reserve Brands’, the company’s luxury portfolio of products. This is big news for Copper Dog as it places it alongside such illustrious names as Johnnie Walker Blue Label, The Singleton, Tanqueray No. Ten and Ron Zacapa. With this in mind I expect we will be seeing a lot more of Copper Dog in the coming years, as they will no doubt seek to grab market share from Monkey Shoulder.

Blended malts give you plenty of bang for your buck. They are quite unlike their elder blended whisky sibling, which tend to be produced in vast quantities in as economical a way as possible. In the production of blended whisky, cost plays a large part, and a larger proportion of the blend is often made up of single grain whisky, keeping costs low. Blended malts, on the other hand, offer consumers an exciting opportunity to sample whiskies whose production has been driven by quality and flavour. I do not mean to disparage blended whisky in the slightest – I am a huge fan of it and find the widespread misconceptions about it immensely frustrating. The point is, blended malts are a different kettle of fish altogether.

It is great to see older brands rising from the ashes too. Old Perth, for instance, produced by the Morrison Scotch Whisky Distillers, was a blended Scotch back in the day and was famed for its high malt content. It has now returned as a blended malt with all sherry matured malt whiskies. It is available as ‘The Original’ (46% ABV, £31.95) or as Cask Strength (58.6% ABV, £41.95), and a 12 Year Old age statement version will be available later this year.

Other fantastic new entrants include Clydebuilt Coppersmith, a blended malt produced by Max McFarlane, formerly of Edrington Group and now whisky maker for Ardgowan. It is a blend of Speyside and Highland malts wholly matured in first fill Oloroso sherry casks, bottled at 48% ABV, and priced at £49.99.

At the other end of the scale – both in terms of price and flavour – is Abrachan, a blended malt from LIDL. A peaty, smoky blended malt, this is not to be sneezed at. I was fortunate to be invited to write the official tasting notes for it, and it is packed with layers of smoked sea salt, beach bonfires and caramelised sugar. At £15.99 a bottle, what’s not to love?

If you want to splash out, look no further than MacNair’s Lum Reek 21 Year Old Peated Blended Malt (48% ABV, £125). It was awarded the World’s Best Blended Malt prize at the World Whisky Awards last year, and rightly so. It is spectacular, with its layers of peat smoke, tobacco smoke, rich toffee and cocoa. It is a blend of Islay and Speyside malt whiskies expertly created by industry legend Billy Walker, owner of GlenAllachie Distillery. They also offer non-aged ‘Peated’ and 12 Year Old variants which are equally delicious, but the 21 Year Old Lum Reek really does it for me.

Seek it out and you shall not be disappointed.

If you are, I’ll happily take your bottle.

“It is packed with layers of smoked sea salt, beach bonfires and caramelised sugar