Master Blender:
The Art
of Blending Whiskey

“Our goal with blended whiskey is to incorporate a variety of flavors and create more than just the ingredients combined. Single malt whisky has great individual flavors, but it is one-dimensional and cannot have a variety of aspects. With blended whiskey, you can create much more complex flavors. Single malt has a fruity pear drop-like flavor, but when blended, the fruity pear drop flavor is combined with floral notes, resulting in a bonfire smoked flavor at the end. A whiskey blend is like a dish, each ingredient is unique, but when they come together, they can create something special and flavorful.

In addition to blending the whiskey in the right proportions, the flavor is greatly influenced by the aging in the cask. In a whiskey like Chivas Regal 18 years, nearly 50% of the final flavor is due to the effect of the cask. If you put the same whiskey in two different casks, you can make two completely different whiskeys! American oak enhances the vanilla flavor, sherry casks bring out the spicy raisin fruitcake flavors, and the list goes on. In order to create such a diverse series, we are experimenting with many different casks.”