Ask most people what their first experience of whisky was and you will be greeted with a shudder, the questionee’s face will turn a charming tinge of green and they’ll reply, “A cheap blend out of my dad’s drinks cabinet, frankly it tasted vile and it made me do things I’d really rather not talk about here.” Fair enough. We all have to start somewhere.

However, this common experience of blended whisky —plus the ready availability of the stuff on the shelf at the supermarket—has led to blends getting a reputation on a par with that of Hollywood diva Lindsay Lohan, some say worse... This has propagated the fallacy that ‘single malt is good, blended whisky is bad’ which is repeated like Animal Farm’s ‘four legs good, two legs bad’ mantra until everyone is bored and has moved on to the Tequila and lime. However, I am here to put the case forward for blended whisky and then, through bravely/foolishly attempting it myself, I will try and give you some tips on how to create your very own blend!

More...

If you can cast your minds back to July of this year (has it really only been two and half months?), you might remember the magic and excitement of the Bloggers’ Blend Competition (you can click here for a quick recap – but prepare for magic and excitement). Basically, we asked ten top whisky bloggers to create their own whisky blends, and then we asked you, the public, to judge which was the best. It was a very exciting time, notable by a proliferation of photos of Chihuahuas dressed as people on our blog. More...