Why Are Blends Overlooked?

By Hugh Barron, James Eadie Ltd

Blended whisky – the combination of grain and malt whisky from various distilleries to make a single product – accounts for 90% of all global sales of Scotch. Yet there’s a persistent assumption that blends exist to be cheaper, and that blending is simply about smoothing edges or hitting a price point.

In reality, good blending demands an intimate understanding of spirit character, maturation, and how whiskies work together. It cannot be rushed or forced.

The irony is that single malts are themselves the result of blending. Multiple casks are selected and married to create balance, consistency, and a recognisable house style. “Single” just means from one distillery. Which raises the question: if we accept blending within one distillery, why does it become suspect the moment more than one distillery is involved?

So why do blends still carry an unfair reputation? For many drinkers they’re seen as basic — something you start with before you “graduate” to single malts. That idea has hung around for decades, and it’s stubbornly hard to shift.

Blends Built Scotch — And That Still Matters

Blends aren’t a footnote in Scotch whisky history — they’re the foundation.

In the 19th century, blending companies turned a fragmented landscape into something drinkers could rely on: consistent, recognisable styles drawn from multiple distilleries.

The advent of the modern whisky industry can be dated to the 1823 Excise Act, which removed major obstacles to legal, commercial distillation of whisky. Distillation in column stills followed shortly after. The first column still, invented by Robert Stein, was trialled at Kirkliston in 1829; the more advanced Coffey still emerged in 1832; by 1848, Scotland had 13 distilleries using column stills.

The purpose of these new distilleries was explicitly to produce a lighter, consistent style to combine with heavier malt whiskies.

Why was this important? Because soon after, a tiny fly – the Phylloxera vastatrix – would appear in Europe, ravaging the native vines of France and decimating the brandy industry, which was then the most popular tipple of Victorian society.

Into this gap stepped whisky – first Irish, then Scotch. For an audience accustomed to the lighter style of brandy, it was the art of blending which enabled whisky to find a national – and ultimately a global – audience. In particular, while malt whisky was almost universally peated (which remained the case, more or less, until the 1960s), grain whisky was not. Grain whisky was thus vital to lessen the peaty, heavy flavours of malt whisky and broaden its appeal:

“What might suit the retail trade in Glasgow may be unsuitable to that in London, and a whisky which would be appreciated in Yorkshire or Lancashire may not be palatable to the tastes of people in Devonshire. Londoners as a rule prefer a blend in which the characteristic flavour of peat is considerably modified. To a Scotchman or an Irishman any modification or toning down of the flavours racy of his soil would be quite unacceptable.”
(Harpers Wine and Spirit Gazette, 1929)

In short, blends grew because they were reliable, approachable and repeatable. They enabled grocers – the independent bottlers of their day – to create new flavours, tailored to the tastes of their customers. It was on this foundation that the popularity of Scotch whisky was built.

Blending Isn’t the Opposite of Craft

Many independent bottlers and blenders are revisiting the original purpose of blending with modern values: clearer labelling, fair pricing, flavour-first decisions. You see it in bottlings from Adelphi, Thompson Bros., Turntable Spirits, and others. Different styles, different approaches—but a shared belief that blends can be characterful, honest, and worth talking about.

That philosophy sits at the heart of everything we do at James Eadie.

Take our flagship blend, Trade Mark ‘X’. Painstakingly revived from James Eadie’s 19th century ledgers by Master Blender Norman Mathison, we only use whisky from the same distilleries that Mr. Eadie was using over 125 years ago.

This process was necessarily slow. When Trade Mark ‘X’ was being assembled, the aim was to recreate the lightly peated old-style of the Victorian era while remaining true to the ledgers. To this end, Norman systematically nosed tens of casks, rejecting those that were just not quite right. Even a slightly out-of-tune cask can pull the whole blend off balance, so only the right components earn their place.

Tellingly, the 14 distilleries used come from all regions of Scotland — Lowland, Campbeltown, Highland, Speyside and Islay — with the main components coming from Highland, Speyside and Islay. This was common blending practice in Mr. Eadie’s day and after as, in the words of a 1920s blender:

“The Speyside whiskies give body to a blend, while the Islays provide the smoky or peat-reek flavour and ‘nose.’ The Campbeltowns are of the Spey side type, but with less body; while the Lowland malts although they have a strong flavour, lack that distinction and finesse which is found in Highland …”

Join the club

If you enjoy whisky with a bit of story and substance, take a look around Summerton Whisky Club.