Blended whisky is again, and it’s higher than you bear in mind.
With single malt costs climbing and high quality blends stepping up, 2025 is the yr sensible drinkers are stocking their cabinets with bottles that ship huge on taste with out breaking the financial institution.
From funds gems to quiet icons, these are one of the best worth blended whiskies value your time (and cash) this yr.
Thompson Brothers TB-BSW
A bottle that’s being talked about for all the proper causes. Hailing from the Thompson Bros gurus, this mix is a mixture of whiskies from first-fill sherry casks and refill sherry casks.
Combining glorious high quality grain whiskies at a minimal of six years previous, this can be a mix that actually does tow the road between sumptuously candy and a bit salty and savoury, too.
Notes of miso, marinated plums, brown sugar, and a few espresso notes, as effectively. All of this extremely advanced flavour for £35 a bottle. Insane high quality and worth.
Johnnie Walker Black Label
I’ve at all times had the mindset of, if it isn’t damaged, then don’t repair it. With regards to worth, high quality, and availability, how do you look any additional than Johnnie Walker Black Label?
Combining malt whiskies for almost each area of Scotland, with grain whiskies from North British and Cameronbridge, you get a whisky that may actually do the whole lot you need.
It’s colored and chill-filtered, however that’s what you get with 99% of all grocery store manufacturers. So don’t let that dissuade you if you happen to’re but to strive, as it’s a stable shelf staple.
Woven Home made
When you’re but to listen to or strive something from Woven, then that is going to be fairly a journey for you.
This mix is much less about experimentation and extra about historical past. This model recreates a few of these old-style Leith blends that targeted closely on sherry. Malts and grain which have been matured in a mixture of Palo Cortado and Pedro Ximenez sherry casks.
A really grassy model mix with notes of honey and apple, it has a really Speyside really feel about it, with the inclusion of some vanilla-driven grain whiskies that offset the richness of these sherry casks.
Black Bull 12 Yr Outdated
A massively under-the-radar model that has been round for effectively over a century. A mix of Scottish malts and grain whiskies which might be matured in each ex-bourbon and ex-Oloroso sherry casks, then bottled at 50% ABV!
It is a daring, punchy, weighty model of mix that’s typically mistaken for a malt whisky in a number of blind tastings that I’ve run through the years.
It’s additionally a part of the Duncan Taylor firm, so if you happen to’re acquainted with their single cask bottlings, that is their home blended whisky. Actually a superb firm to be concerned with.
Ardray Blended Scotch Whisky
When this bottle got here out, I believe lots of people let loose a sigh of Edrington-Beam Suntory attempting to get into the Compass Field space of blended whisky. Nonetheless, once I tried this at an early launch, it was truly fairly tasty!
A mix of all the Scottish whiskies beneath the then Edrington-Beam Suntory firm, so: Glen Garioch, Bowmore, Laphroaig, Auchentoshan, The Macallan, Highland Park, Glenrothes, and Ardmore. Together with grain whiskeys sourced from the 50/50 owned North British distillery.
That is Scottish liquids blended by the group at Suntory for all issues steadiness and delicacy. After shopping for a bottle, this factor obtained higher and higher the additional it went down. Notes of very delicate peat with wealthy spiced honey and sherry notes in every single place. A genuinely good mix, albeit a bit dearer than the take a look at of the bottles on this listing.
White Heather 15 Yr Outdated
Do you want Billy Walker’s whiskies? Properly, that is the mix that he makes.
Bottled at 46% ABV and a minimal of 15 years previous, White Heather combines a variety of Scottish single malts from Speyside, the Highland, and Islay to provide you this very BBQ pineapple profile. The grain whiskies then exhibit with these salted caramel butterscotch notes.
The smoke is a bit more current on the end and it turns into a bit earthier with ginger and a few tender wooden influences. However in all honesty, what an absolute steal for the cash. This bottle has all the nice factors of Johnnie Walker Inexperienced Label, with the whole lot turned up a bit extra.
Ultimate Pour
From £35 grocery store sleepers to sherried blends with cult potential, 2025 is shaping up because the yr blended whisky reclaims its crown. When you’ve been chasing age statements and single malts, perhaps it’s time to look sideways, not down.
These bottles show that steadiness, character, and worth can nonetheless share a label. The one actual query is – which one are you opening first?
