The Art Of Blending, Simon McGoram

CELEBRATE THE ART OF BLENDING

WHY THE ‘B-WORD’ HAS A BRIGHT FUTURE AHEAD

Whisky is enjoying a golden period of growth. This is, of course, no surprise to you if you picked up this publication – you’re already a fan and proud that your local bottle-shop, bar or even pub now boasts an impressive selection Scotch, Irish, American, Australian and Japanese whiskies. But what is enabling this growth? Why is every other Joe Blogs now a member of a whisky appreciation club?

WORDS SIMON MCGORAM, DIAGEO NATIONAL WHISKY AMBASSADOR

The answer is what it has always been – it’s thanks to the art of blending. For you single malt devotees out there this may be a little surprising as the ‘b-word’ is something you rarely drop these days in polite conversation. The thing is, the art of blending is as important now as it has ever been and the future for this craft is looking bright indeed.

Through the educational seminars and training that I run as Diageo’s National Whisky Ambassador, a real ‘a-ha’ moment for budding whisky enthusiasts is realising that the art blending isn’t limited to blended Scotch whisky, but even that single malt you’re drinking has been crafted by an expert blender. As no two casks age the same, distillery bottlings are almost always a marriage of casks pulled together to reflect a house style or desired flavour expression.

However, amongst the whisky drinking elite there is an endless quest for achieving a perceived purity in Scotch whisky, through an increased focus on the ‘singularity’ of the whisky they are drinking, with ‘limited-edition’, ‘non-chill filtered’, ‘cask-strength’ and ‘singlecask’ being their markers for quality. That’s a lot of hyphens!

Whilst these single-cask bottlings are often delicious, it’s erroneous to believe that these casks – as unique as they may be – are innately superior or reflect a distillery’s true character. On the contrary they can be a one-dimensional look at a distillery’s style - just one shade of that maker’s true colour.

By extension blended whisky enables the expert blender to paint a whole picture, not just in monochrome. The different distilleries offer access to a wider palate, with each cask in turn offering its own shade of that colour.

This isn’t new thinking in the whisky trade, with famed whisky writer Dave Broom weighing in on the debate in his book ‘The World Atlas of Whisky’: “Malts are about intensity of character,” he writes. “Single malt bottlings are about maximizing this singularity. Blends are about creating a totality.”

Single malts are known as being a product of place, but in a blend flavour becomes the focus. Blends use malts with distinctive regional character to create their ‘totality’ but they lean more to being a product of people rather than place. Blends are made by experts, craftspeople with decades of experience providing an innate understanding of blending philosophy and an encyclopaedic knowledge of their maturing stocks.

At Diageo, our experienced blending team is lucky to have a flavour palate that’s bigger than anyone else. They have access to over 8 million casks of maturing whisky from more than 30 distilleries enabling them to produce a dizzyingly large array of blends including famous brands like Bells, Black & White, Old Parr, Vat 69, Buchanan’s, White Horse and and, of course, the world’s favourite whisky Johnnie Walker.

Let’s not forget that blends offer an extraordinary amount of complexity versus price. Take a look at Johnnie Walker Black Label – a 12-year-old blended Scotch whisky. This dram is considered a benchmark, a yardstick against what other whiskies should be judged. It’s assembled by a team of 12 expert blenders, led by Doctor Jim Beveridge – only Walker’s 6th Master Blender in almost 200 years of history - many of whom have several decades of experience in the industry. They combine over 30 malt and grain whiskies from the four corners of Scotland including grassy Cardhu from Speyside, waxy Clynelish from the Northern Highlands, fragrant Glenkinchie from the Lowlands and smoky Caol Ila from Islay. As a blend Black Label manages to capture all the flavours of Scotch whisky in a single glass.

Jim Murray the author of The Whisky Bible once described Johnnie Walker Black Label as, the ‘Everest of deluxe whiskies’, saying that, “there is not a blender who would not give their right arm - or even their left one - for the recipe of this supreme whisky. The trouble is, even if they had it, they would then struggle to find the stock. It represents the best value for money of any whisky in the world.”

Despite blends having their advocates, there’s a common misconception that with the rise in popularity of single malts, blended Scotch has fallen by the wayside. Single malts still only make up about 10% of global volume despite their growth and have been at this level for some time – testament to the art of blending’s continued relevance. We need to remember blended Scotch whisky is a whisky of the people – more accessible in nature through mixablity, flavour and price point.

Whisky in general, and Scotch in particular, is notorious for being an intimidating category to get into for novice drinkers – but if blends can continue to be part of the answer here then that is something to be celebrated.

Closer to home, we’ve been lucky enough to see Australian whisky really take off in recent years but high entry level prices - usually well in excess of $90 a bottle - mean that the majority of Australians are yet to experience its promise.

I’m going to make a prediction here – and there’s always the risk I’ll get this completely wrong and be haunted by this being forever in print – but the art of blending is the answer! That’s right in coming years we’ll see Australian producers putting blended whisky into people’s hands.

The art of blending is something to be celebrated. It’s putting more whisky into more hands, it’s fundamental in our understanding of single malts’ house style and it’s about unlocking and harnessing flavour. The ‘b-word’ - be it Scotch, Australian or other has a promising future!

“WE NEED TO REMEMBER BLENDED SCOTCH WHISKY IS A WHISKY OF THE PEOPLE – MORE ACCESSIBLE IN NATURE THROUGH MIXABLITY, FLAVOUR AND PRICE POINT.”