The Uncomplicated Version
The label on a bottle of Scotch whisky conveys a huge amount of information with only a few words. Understanding what each word means will give you a great appreciation for what’s inside the bottle and how to decide which bottles to buy.
Macallan 12 Year Bottle copyright The Macallan
8 June 2024 – To put everything in context, we’ll use a familiar example that many people are likely to have come across: The Macallan 12 years-old “Sherry Oak Cask”.
The full set of words on the label actually reads:
The Macallan, Highland Single Malt Scotch Whisky
12 Years Old
Sherry Oak Casks
Let’s break that down:
“The Macallan” is the distillery that produced the whisky in the bottle.
“Highland” is the region in which The Macallan is situated within Scotland. Scotland has 5 main whisky regions: Speyside, Lowland, Highland, Campeltown, and Islay.
Whisky nerd note: The Macallan is typically thought of as a “Speyside” distillery – technically a region within the Highland – but the historical context means that they self-identify as a Highland distillery.
“Single Malt” is perhaps the most complex identifier that is often misunderstood but highly relevant. These words must be understood separately.
“Single” means that the whisky comes from a single distillery and does not have even one drop of whisky that was produced anywhere else.
“Malt” means that 100% of the whisky was produced using malted barley. This is to distinguish it from other types of whisky, such as grain whisky or blends. More on that below.
“Scotch” means that 100% of the contents of the bottle was distilled, aged, and bottled in Scotland.
“Whisky” is, as defined by Scottish law, aged for a minimum of 3 years in an oak cask and contains a minimum of 40% alcohol by volume (“ABV”).
“12 years old” is the minimum amount of time that the whisky matured in the cask prior to being bottled.
“Sherry Oak Cask” means that prior to containing Scotch, the cask(s) in which the whisky was matured contained sherry (a fortified wine).
To revisit “Single Malt”, this is usually the most sought-after drink for whisky enthusiasts and typically it also commands the highest prices at retail and auctions. Generally speaking, it is also the best investment cask type as well. There are several factors for this, but flavour profile, prestige, cost of production, and scarcity all play a part. Below are the 5 categories of Scotch Whisky:
| Single Malt | Whisky made exclusively from malted barley and water, from a single distillery. |
| Single Grain | Whisky made exclusively from grains other than malted barley and water, from a single distillery. |
| Blended Malt | A blend (of any proportion) that includes more than 1 single malt* whisky. |
| Blended Grain | A blend (of any proportion) that includes more than 1 single grain whisky. |
| Blended Whisky | A blend (of any proportion) that contains both single malt and single grain whiskies. |
*Whisky nerd note: If you had 200L of a single malt whisky then added just 1 teaspoon of another single malt in it, the entire batch would now become a Blended Malt. This is commonly referred to as ‘teaspooning’.
As you can see, the label on a bottle of scotch conveys a tremendous amount of technical information. All of this can be very important to understanding which whiskies you like and, in many cases, why you like them.