Scotch whisky is defined as being either a malt whisky, a grain whisky or a combination of the two, which is distilled and matured in Scotland for a minimum of three years in oak wood casks. Many distilleries mature their whiskies for more than 3 years & highlight these ages on their bottles.
An age statement Scotch whisky, which is expressed in numerical form, must reflect the age of the youngest whisky used to produce that product.
A whisky without an age statement is known as a non-age statement (NAS) whisky, the only guarantee being that all whisky contained in that bottle is at least three years old, although more often than not, these expressions contain older ages too.
The legal minimum bottling strength for Scotch whisky is 40% alcohol by volume (abv).
There are six whisky producing regions in Scotland as indicated in the map.
Single Malt Scotch Whisky is the product of only one distillery and must be made from malted barley. Spirit is produced in the traditional batch process of mashing, fermentation, distillation in copper stills and maturation.
Blended Scotch Whisky is made from a combination of single malt and grain Scotch whiskies, which have been expertly selected to complement one another.
Grain Scotch Whisky is made from an assortment of different cereal grains, in a continuous process, using column stills. It has a mild, balanced flavour, which acts as a base for the more flavoursome single malts.
Blended Malt Scotch Whisky contains a mixture of single malts from different distilleries.
Single Cask Scotch Whisky is bottled from just one cask that has come from one distillery. Once the whisky has been removed from the cask, the flavour can never be replicated. Their rarity makes single cask whiskies highly desirable and collectable.
We stock a broad range of Scotch whisky in our maturation warehouses, of various ages and from many different distilleries.
