Single Malt Scotch Whisky

A Single Malt Scotch Whisky is the product of one specific distillery and has not been mixed with whisky from any other distilleries. This whisky is produced by pot still distillation process with malted barley as the only grain ingredient in a single distillery and are stored in Oak casks to mature for a minimum period of 3 years although most of them are matured for longer period. Several types of grains like barley, rye and wheat can be malted to produce whisky however, the word "Malt" in case of Single Malt Scotch indicates that the whisky is distilled from a single "malted" grain which is always barley. The word "Single" indicates that all the malts in the bottle come from a single distillery. Multi-distillery malts are usually called "blended malt", "vatted malt" or "pure malt".


The greatest concentration of malt whisky distilleries can be found in the Speyside region of north-east Scotland, with Highland, Lowland and Islay being the other main malt whisky producing zones. Each of these regions has its own particular distinctive style of malt whisky and although it is not possible for two malts to be identical, even if the distilleries that produce them happen to stand side by side, it is usually possible to distinguish in which region of Scotland a particular whisky was made.


Bottlings of single malt can contain whisky from several casks and most often do, whereas the term single single could refer to a bottling from a single cask. The practice of combining exclusively malt whisky from different casks, at a single distillery, is called vatting. Once combined they are sometimes kept in wood for a period to marry.

While Scotland had over a hundred distilleries producing malt, most of that production went into blended Scotches. The few who marketed their malt whisky "straight" were considered the exception to the norm. Fortunately, the past two decades have led to an astonishing growth in the number of single malts available.

Some of the best Single Malt Scotch Whisky are –

GLENFIDDICH 15 YEAR OLD SOLERA RESERVE; THE BALVENIE 21 YEAR PORTWOOD; THE MACALLAN 18 YEAR OLD SINGLE MALT SCOTCH WHISKY; THE GLENLIVET 18 YEAR OLD SINGLE MALT SCOTCH WHISKY; CRAGGANMORE 12 YEAR OLD SINGLE MALT SCOTCH WHISKY; OBAN 14 YEAR OLD SINGLE MALT SCOTCH WHISKY; GLENMORANGIE 18 YEAR OLD SINGLE MALT SCOTCH WHISKY; GLENGOYNE 17 YEAR OLD SINGLE MALT SCOTCH WHISKY; THE DALMORE 15 YEAR SINGLE MALT SCOTCH WHISKY; ARDBEG CORRYVRECKAN; LAPHROAIG QUARTER CASK SINGLE MALT SCOTCH WHISKY; TALISKER 10 YEAR SINGLE MALT SCOTCH WHISKY;