Best Blended Scotch Whiskies
Johnnie Walker
If there is one brand that is synonymous with the words 'blended whisky', then it is Johnnie Walker. Old Highland Walker as it used to be known, rose from small beginnings to become the world's best loved blended whisky. In 1867, the founder launched Johnnie Walker’s first commercial blend, and negotiated with the captains of local shipping vessels to carry his whisky across the seas. Johnnie Walker Red Label is the best-selling Scotch Whisk in the world, renowned for its bold, characterful taste – balanced to shine through even when mixed. It’s a flavour profile the Walker family has never compromised on.
Compass Box
Created in 2000 by American entrepreneur, John Glasser, Compass Box proudly offer a wide array of blended whiskies, with an equally wide range of flavours. Compass Box fiercely believes in the merits of blending, and diversity within the blends, and they create their own custom casks, experimenting with toast levels and innovative cask design, aiming to develop flavour profiles never before tasted in the world of Scotch. No age statements are found on their whiskies as the brand believe that these can be a false flag for quality.
Black Bottle
With roots going back to the nineteenth century, Black Bottle was founded in Aberdeen by the Graham brothers. Today, they use a variety of finely tuned techniques in the production of its whisky, techniques it calls ‘Ingenious Alchemy’. With a renowned smoky flavour, they use a high percentage of Islay whiskies in their blends, use charred casks, and double mature all of the whisky in American virgin oak. Expect to taste the fruits of the two cask charred method with every sip.
Chivas Regal
The fourth best selling blended Scotch whisky in the world, with especially huge popularity in Europe and across Asia, Chivas Regal produces a core range of the 12 Year Old, the 15 Year Old, the 18 Year Old, and the 21 Year Old. Strathisla Distillery in Speyside is Chivas spiritual home, and is one of the oldest distilleries in Scotland. The Chivas brothers began as grocers in 1836, before expanding into whisky blending.
Campbeltown Loch
This blended whisky by the iconic Springbank distillery, in the charming Campbeltown region, is an award-winning blended malt that brings together the five expressions from the region's three renowned distilleries: Glengyle, Glen Scotia and, of course, Springbank. Campbeltown Loch has been carefully matured in a combination of both bourbon and sherry casks, resulting in the unmistakable Campbeltown flavour that whisky aficionados know and love.
House of Hazelwood
For almost a century, the Gordon family have laid down stocks of Scotch whisky for personal consumption and special occasions in their Dufftown home, Hazelwood House. This once-private collection is now available outside the family – in small, hand-selected batches – as the House of Hazelwood range, a diverse selection of incredibly rare whiskies. Created over the span of one hundred years, the range tells the story of remarkable places, lost ways of working, first casks, last casks, the ambitions and achievements of several lifetimes, all of which are unrepeatable.
Black Bull
Crafted in small handmade batches, Black Bull is made according to an unchanged 150-year-old recipe using a minimum of 50% malt whisky. It was first made by farmer George Willsher, and he displayed his favourite bull on the label of his prized whisky. By the late 19th century, his blended whisky was already being exported to new markets across Europe. The whisky was revitalised in 2001 by Euan Shand, and 17 years later, the Black Bull 40 Year Old was voted World’s Best Blended Whisky.
The Loch Fyne Living Cask
Beginning from The Living Cask 1745, the first incarnation of the expression made from 100% Islay whiskies, the cask has been continuously topped up according to the lost practice detailed in Professor George Saintsbury's 1920 book, Notes on a Cellar. Always re-filled and never empty, The Living Cask will never die and will always be an evolution of its Islay origins. Every batch crafted is unique, meaning each intriguing expression is a limited edition release.