Braw blends

Whether toasting dearly departed friends or seeking consistent excellence, blended whiskies fit the bill, says Blair Bowman

Regular readers know that I’m a huge fan of blended whisky and for over a decade have championed these under-appreciated wonders of the whisky world.

For some reason there has been a perpetual snobbery around drinking blended whiskies, as if somehow they are the inferior younger sibling to single malt whiskies. On the contrary, it is quite the opposite. Yes, it is generally cheaper to buy a bottle of a blended whisky when compared to a single malt, but that does not mean it is lower in quality. I’ve also written about the wonders of blended malts too.

I’m regularly asked what my favourite whisky is, or what would my desert island whisky be. My answer – which is Johnnie Walker Black Label – often comes as a surprise. But why? Johnnie Walker Black Label is a fantastic blended whisky of consistent excellence.

In my last musings on blends, I was extremely impressed by the inaugural releases of a nascent whisky blending business, Woven Whisky (who, incidentally, just won nine IWSC awards). Each new release, or ‘experience’ as Woven call them, is blended in small batches of which there are now 14. Each release has absolute transparency about what went into each blend, even breaking down the percentage of each component to two decimal places.

As well as these small batch releases they have just released their first core product called Superblend (46.1%, £45), a fascinating and absolutely delicious ‘World Whisky’ blend which combines whiskies from Scotland, England, Germany, the USA and Ireland. Having tasted a few other ‘World Whisky’ blends that were a bit all over the place, I was pleasantly surprised: this is excellently balanced, crisp and fresh. It is cracking in a highball too (pro tip: try it in a highball with some Vichy Catalan sparkling mineral water).

In a similar vein of blended whisky transparency (only to one decimal place this time) and bang for buck deliciousness, the new Perpetuity Blended Scotch Whisky (45.7%, £40) from the Port of Leith Distillery is another delightful and innovative take on blended whisky. Inspired by the concept of an infinity bottle, they have blended a selection of casks and then bottled only half of the liquid, which makes up Batch 1 of Perpetuity. Moving forward, their blender will use this as the base for adding more casks, again bottling only half for Batch 2, and so on, in, wait for it, perpetuity.

This is a really clever idea as over time it will add depth and richness to each batch. Furthermore from a sourcing perspective it means that they are not constrained by trying to source exactly the same whiskies for each batch, which is increasingly hard to do. Perpetuity Batch 1 has oodles of citrus and orchard fruits with honey nut cornflake notes too. Very quaffable. I’m going to make sure I hold back some of Batch 1 to compare with Batch 2 when it is released.

I’d also like to give a special mention to blended grain whiskies, a very niche part of the market with only a handful of offerings. A personal favourite is the 30-yearold blended grain whisky from Master of Malt called Butterscotch & Vanilla & Toast & A Generation (40%, £64.95).

At the other end of the blended whisky spectrum, the range of blends from House of Hazelwood also include a delicious 43-year-old Blended Grain (41.6%, £1,200) as well as some wonderful age statement blended malt and blended Scotch whiskies: 1965 Blended Scotch Whisky (47%, £4,500), 56-year-old Blended Scotch (48.7%, £4,000), 33-year-old Blended Malt (51.6%, £1,450), 39-year-old Blended Malt (42.5%, £950), 43-year-old Blended Grain (41.6%, £1,200) and 46-year-old Blended Scotch (43.6%, £1,200).

Last, but certainly not least, I have had a strong affinity for all The Last Drop Distillers’ drams that I’ve been fortunate enough to taste, particularly their 50-year-old Signature Blended Scotch Whisky (47.2%, £3,250) created by Colin Scott.

Tragically, a year ago I lost a very close friend in a terrible accident. We had first tasted this incredible blend together and I’ll never forget the pure delight in sharing that moment with him. He said it was the best whisky he had ever tasted and immediately purchased three bottles. To mark his birthday last year I bought a bottle to toast him and opened it over Zoom with his family. It was the most emotionally charged tasting of my life. It’s amazing how powerful whisky can be: it was an incredibly sad moment but I’m so glad I can toast him each year with a dram of such delicious blended whisky.

Full disclosure: Blair is a shareholder of both Woven Whisky and Port of Leith Distillery.

“

It was the most emotionally charged tasting of my life – whisky can be amazingly powerful