Gents,
There was some conversation about the various "types" (not to be confused with brands, regions, &c.) of Scotch Whisky at our last event, and I just read an excellent article in this month's Cigar Aficionado that helped to explain things. Here's my attempt to paraphrase...
- Blended Whisky - A mix of whiskies from various distilleries and grain whisky, which is a blend of grains distilled in a Column Still - the "blend" in blended whisky is the grain whisky, because it's a blend of grains (as opposed to a single malt, which comes from a single type of barley). The grain is used as a base for the blend.
- Single Malt Whisky - Whisky from only one distillery. A bottle of single malt may be derived from a vatting of several different casks (different distillations from the same distillery; maybe even from several different years). The key to a single malt is the distiller, not the spirit.
- Vatted Malt Whisky or Blended-Malt Whisky - A mix of single malts from varying distilleries. While a single malt may be considered a vatted malt, it will never be labeled as such. The only difference between a Vatted Malt and a Blended Whiskey is the presence of grain whisky. This type of whisky is often referred to as Blended-Malt Whisky (note the hyphen to distinguish it from the grain-based type), because "Vatted" is seen as too pejorative a term for the blokes marketing the stuff.
- Single Cask or Single Barrel - Once is a while an individual barrel from a particular batch of whisky is good enough to be bottled all alone. These tend to either be exceptional whiskies or just really sum up the character of the distillery ...and they usually go for a pretty penny!
I could elaborate more, but that would send me careening beyond the scope of this note, so I'll leave it at that.
Right then; my work here is finished!
Sláinte,
