One of the few characteristics that they share is the fact that
Scottish law requires that the distilled spirit has to be matured
in a cask for at least three years before it can be called Scotch.

Now it's time to establish what all those fancy words in the whiskey world mean.
First of all: there are only two VERY different categories of Scotch whisky
(both usually spelled without the ‘e’); malt whisky & grain whisky.

We will get back to MALT whiskey and other
phrases shortly, but first I must stress that malt
whiskey and grain whiskey are really very different.

First of all, any type of cereal or grain can be used to make grain whiskey; corn / maize,
oats, rice, rye, wheat, etc.. For Scotch malt whisky, malted barley is used exclusively.

Differences between malt whiskey and grain whiskey

So, at first it doesn’t seem to make a lot of
sense that these very different spirits would
both be called ‘whisky’. Well, at least it does
not from the perspective of consumers...

Another key difference is the equipment that is used; malt whiskey is distilled in copper
pot stills during a batch process, while grain whiskey flows out of so-called column stills
in a continuous process. The chapter about distillation provides some more details,
but understanding the difference is crucial.

It makes a lot of sense for the producers,
though. When column stills were invented
in the 19th century, the people who already
owned capital or land could invest in them.

Blending: mixing the good with the bad

Pronunciation of Scotch distillery names

But there are dozens of malt whisky distilleries with ‘Gaelic’ names too.
Oddly enough, their names become easier to pronounce after you’ve
enjoyed a few ‘drams’ of the whisky that’s produced at that distillery.
Or at least it seems easier...

The fact that you are reading this suggests that you have at least
a basic grasp of the English language. This means that you should be
able to pronounce the ‘English’ distillery names like Highland Park or
Springbank - as long as you haven’t consumed too much whisky...

When the Malt Maniacs emerged from the primordial ooze, everybody used their
own notation or ‘syntax’ to describe a particular bottling, which was confusing.
To improve our internal communications we devised the ‘Uniform Scotch Syntax’.

Uniform Scotch Syntax

At the right you can find a ‘cheat sheet’ with some tongue twisters.
However, keep in mind that there are many local dialects in Scotland
and a few names have several socially aceptable pronunciations.

There’s one last topic that deserves
attention in this chapter on the words
that we use to talk about whisky; the
various ways in which the very same
malt whisky can be described.

There’s much more to tell about the whisky vocabulary, but I‘ll leave that for the Advanced Beginners Guide...

It includes the name of the distillery, age statement, vintage, bottling year and a bottling name if aplicable. Other details like ABV, bottler, series, cask number, etc.
are included between brackets. So, the bottle at the left can be described as:
Allt-A-Bhainne 1991/2004 (43%, Gordon & MacPhail, Conn. Ch., new map label).

By far the most bottles of Scotch whisky that are sold are blended whisky - a 'blend' of malt whisky
and grain whisky. And while Scotch whisky distillation may appear very regulated, there are no
rules whatsoever for the proportions in which the grain and malt whiskies are mixed together.
While Scotch blended whisky used to combine roughly 2/3 of grain whiskies with about 1/3 of
malt whiskies (on average) during most of the 20th century, modern blends are less ‘malty’.

Tracking down an ‘antique’ bottle of blended
whisky might go a tad beyond the capabilities,
wallet or even interest of a relative) beginner
in the whisky world, but it would be worth it...

If you can find a bottle of blended whisky that
was bottled before +/- 1980, you really should
do a H2H or head-to-head tasting, comparing
it with a recent bottle of blended Scotch whisky.
Any brand will do - just as long as it’s recent.

On the other hand, blended whisky certainly appeals
to a large group of customers. Sure, an average blend
is much ‘blander’ than an average single malt whisky,
but not everybody likes their spirits TOO flavourful.

The folkloristic stories woven by whisky writers and PR people conjure up images of skilled
stillmen and experienced ‘master blenders’ weaving their mysterious Scottish whisky magic.
The reality is more prosaic these days. The ‘secret recipes’ of blended whiskies are dictated more
by practical factors like the prices of casks on the market and the company’s own stocks of whisky.
Most Scotch whisky producers own several distilleries and warehouses filled with maturing casks.
Possibly the biggest advantage of a ‘secret recipe’ is that you can change it when it suits you...

So, a blended Scotch whisky combines malt and
grain whiskies from different distilleries to produce a
a matured spirit (a minimum of 3 years) that appeals
to the tastes & wallets of as many people as possible.

However, all this talk about blends has already used up half of this page...
Let’s move along and proceed to the main topic of this chapter: the words that whisky people use.

The language of the whisky world is still ‘Scotch’...

In order to keep things understandable for the
(relative) ‘beginners’, I’ll keep most information
on other whisk(e)y types and ‘exotic’ whiskies
reserved for the Advanced Beginners Guide.

In the chapter on the geography
of whisky(e)y, I’ll try to illustrate
that the whisky world is far larger
than Scotland & Ireland these days.

This guide focuses on Scotch malt whisky.
There are many other types of whisky available and whiskey
made in other countries is often produced under different
rules and regulations. For example, American bourbon and
rye whiskey must be “aged at least briefly in oak”. So, that
might be a few days, as opposed to 3 years in Scotland.

Scotch malt whisky must be produced from
100% malted barley, fermented with yeast
and distilled batch by batch in traditional
copper 'pot stills'. Except for water, no
other grain products or fermentable
materials are permitted.

Within the 'malt whisky' category, there
are two sub-categories of malt whisky;
SINGLE MALT WHISKY (the product from
one distillery, not blended with any whisky 
distilled at other whisky distilleries) and
VATTED MALT WHISKY (different malt
whiskies from more than one distillery.)

I have no problems with blending as such.
Mixing decent whiskies together in the right proportions can
produce something that is greater than the sum of its parts.
However, most grain whiskies aren’t halfway decent - while
I’m not afraid to use the word ‘indecent’ for some others.
The SWA likes the lines between malt and grain whisky as
blurry as possible, but I’ll keep using the word ‘vatting’ for
malt whisky and ‘blend’ whenever grain whisky is involved.