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BLENDED VERSUS STRAIGHT

Until the middle of the nineteenth century, wiskey was a straight unblended spirit with only water added to lower the alcohol strength. Sometimes it was bottled, but most often it was served right out of the barrel. At that time, whiskey consumption was confined to Ireland, Scotland, and the United States; in England it was considered the poor relation to fine French brandy, and the English found the malt scotch too strong in every way. All of that changed however, when the phylloxera epidemic that wiped out Eurpea’s grapes devastated Cognac in the 1880s.

 

 

 Scotch whiskey stepped up to the plate with the help of the Coffey still, which was able to produce a light, high-proof mixed-grain whiskey cheaply, and of Andrew Usher, a distiller from Edinburgh who figured out a solution to the “too strong” complaint. Usher blended the light grain whiskey with the heavy malt whiskey to achieve a blended whiskey that had the good qualities of both spirits and could be produced with consistency at a very good price. Blending was further enhanced around this time when the grain-whiskey producers in Scotland discovered the sweetness of corn from their American cousins and started using it, too.

Blending in American whiskey was a result of Prohibition. Aged, straight whiskey inventory was nonexistent in the United States after Prohibition, and young whiskey was blended with older Canadian stocks until the production of aged straight whiskey could catch up to the market.