The Malt Cask

When it's pouring down with rain outside, in a late British afternoon, what better to do than enjoying a glass of whisky. Today, not a single malt but a blended malt, previously called a vatted malt. What is the difference between a standard blend and a blended malt? It is rather simple, a standard blend will be a mix of malt whiskies (made from malted barley) and grain whiskies (made from a range of grain, corn, rye or wheat for example) whereas a blended malt is made from a mix of different single malt whiskies. And that is what The Spice Tree is, a mix of several single malts, all made from malted barley, produced in some of the northern Highlands distilleries (primarily the Clynelish distillery) 1 .  Compass Box is a small producer of blended malt whiskies which was founded in 2000. The guys at Compass Box try to make the whisky industry evolve particularly stating the provenance and composition of some of their blends. When the Spice Tree was introduced in 2005, it had firs...