That’s not really a math question, but rather a subject I was deliberating with myself. It all started a few days ago, while i was in the NL, and a friend of mine posted a picture of two whiskies on Facebook and tagged me, so I can help his brother decide whether to buy a Glenrothes Rubur reserve or a 18 year old Dewar’s. I was leaning towards the Dewar’s and suggested he buy that, and he replied : “Never thought I’d see the day a Speyside single malt would get out voted to a blend..”.
This really got me thinking. If you read the blog you very well know that I am not a single malt snob, although I have reviewed many more malts than blends, and us whisky geeks (guilty as charged) tend to prefer single malts when analysing and dissecting them into pieces with our (silly some say) tasting notes. I do however think that some blends are very good indeed, and being a single malt does not entitle you automatically to be superior to “lesser” blends. having some grain as well as other malts inside does not make a blend inferior by definition.Creating a good blend is indeed serious work, as is selecting good casks for the vatting of single malts. And yes, sometimes bad casks are bottled as single malts, or just very uninteresting malt is bottled and sold as “malt” whisky…
I’ve come across some wonderful blended whiskies in my whisky journey, and shared some with you (Black Bull , Tweeddale and more), while I have come across some quite uninteresting, or just bad malts(a few), which I have not enjoyed. My point in this long and arduous post is that : Do not think a malt better than the blend by default, and yes, you can prefer good blends to mediocre or boring malts. Having said that, a lot of malts are far better than your average blend, so do not misinterpret my saying…
Have fun dramming!