Blended Malt Whisky is a mix of two or more single malt whiskies without any grain whisky content in the assemblage. The category was formerly sometimes referred to as Pure Malt or Vatted Malt, but these terms were banned and replaced with Blended Malt in the 2009 Scotch Whisky Regulations.

Blended Malt Whisky should not be confused with the more prevalent Blended Scotch Whisky, which is a mix of malt whisky and grain whisky. Blended Malt refers to any product that contains only malt whisky but is a product of more than one distillery.

The most well-known Blended Malt whiskies are Johnnie Walker Green Label and Grant’s Monkey Shoulder, but there are several other great whiskies in this category. Compass Box bottle several outstanding blended malt whiskies including Peat Monster, Spice Tree and Flaming Heart, and released their superb Last Vatted Malt in 2011 to commemorate the demise of the Vatted Malt classification term. 

Some other Scotch blended malts worth checking out include the Islay Blended Malt Big Peat by Douglas Laing, MacNair’s Lum Reek from the Glenallachie stable, the Supersonic series by North Star Spirits and Prában na Linne’s Talisker-containing Poit Dhubh, while elsewhere the Japanese company Nikka produce the excellent Taketsuru blended malt whisky, a vatting of their Yoichi and Miyagikyo single malts named after the company’s founder Masataka Taketsuru. Other indie bottlers including Berry Bros & Rudd and Fable also regularly release small batch blended malt whiskies.

Interestingly, Nikka still label Taketsuru as a Pure Malt, which we’re sure is not a brilliantly petty passive-aggressive gesture in the direction of the Scotch Whisky Association (whose rules do not apply to their products), and we’re sure the famously easy-going SWA don’t mind one bit as it’s none of their business.

Another type of Blended Malt whisky is the category of teaspooned malt whiskies, which are casks that have had a small amount of another distillery’s malt added for the express purpose of declassifying that cask from the single malt whisky category. 

Teaspooning is a form of brand protection used by some distilleries who do not want the casks they swap with other companies for blending purposes to later resurface on the market from an independent bottler. Nevertheless, some of these casks are sold on by the receiving distilleries if they are surplus to requirements and subsequently find their way to market.

When a cask of single malt whisky has been teaspooned it is no longer single malt whisky, so it cannot be bottled using its original distillery name - so Glenfiddich that has been teaspooned with Balvenie is known as Wardhead, while some teaspooned Laphroaig casks are bottled as Williamson.