“Scotch” is a legally protected name. Here is what it guarantees — and how to read the words that come after it.
What makes it Scotch
To be called Scotch whisky, a spirit must be distilled and matured in Scotland, aged in oak casks for at least three years, and bottled at no less than 40% alcohol by volume.
The five categories
- Single Malt: made only from malted barley in pot stills, at a single distillery.
- Single Grain: made at a single distillery, which may use other cereals as well as malted barley.
- Blended Malt: a blend of single malts from more than one distillery.
- Blended Grain: a blend of single grains from more than one distillery.
- Blended Scotch: a blend of one or more single malts with one or more single grains.
Is blended worse than single malt?
No — just different. Blending is a craft of its own: the blender combines whiskies from different distilleries to build a consistent, balanced character that no single distillery could produce alone.
Reading the age statement
If a label shows an age, it must be the age of the youngest whisky in the bottle. A 12-year-old blend may contain older whiskies, but none younger than 12.
Discover Bauman Blended Scotch.
