Wild Scotsman 15-Year Blended Malt Scotch Whisky

by Noah Joseph (RSS feed)
Oct 7th 2010 at 4:02PM

Anyone who's anyone knows that scotch whisky comes from Scotland. But does that mean every company offering it needs to be Scottish as well? Not according to Jeffrey Topping, the mind behind Wild Scotsman Whisky. While all the whisky used in Wild Scotsman comes from Scotland, it's vatted and sold in Ohio.

The latest expression, Wild Scotsman 15-year Blended Malt Scotch Whisky is, let's be clear, a blend. But unlike labels like Johnnie Walker or Dewar's, its contents are exclusively single malts, blended together. In other words, Wild Scotsman (like other vatted or blended malts) doesn't include any inferior mass-produced grain alcohol. Those who've had with the likes of Compass Box, Monkey Shoulder or Big Peat will be familiar with the oft-misunderstood category.

For the Wild Scotsman 15, Topping and company selected ten casks, each from a different distillery across the six distilling regions of Scotland: Highland, Lowland, Speyside, Campeltown, Islay and the Islands. Each has been aged exclusively in bourbon barrels (no wine casks) for between 15 and 20 years. This final release will be available in limited quantities of 80 cases from 40 retailers in Ohio, each bottled suggested to retail at $59.99.

Tags: blended malt, scotch, scotch whisky, vatted malt, vatted malt whisky, vatted whisky, whisky, wild scotsman