The Case for Blended Scotch, Islay Deals You Can't Ignore, and Why Ricky Gervais Might Actually Get Celebrity Whisky Right

This week I'm featuring Hi Proof, an independent whisky and spirits shop out of Fullerton, California. They ship nationally at a flat rate of $16.99–$19.99 depending on your location, with a max of 12 bottles per order. This week's picks lean hard into the theme from the Worth Knowing section — blended malts deserve your attention, and these prices make it easy to find out why. I've also thrown in two Islay single malts that are priced too well to ignore. These five are just a sample of what Hi Proof has on the shelves — their Scotch and bourbon inventory is deep and well-priced across the board, so it's worth browsing the full site.

A blended malt from Compass Box built from six components: 41% Clynelish (~8 years old, first-fill bourbon barrel), 34% Linkwood (~6 years old, first-fill bourbon barrel), 10% Glen Moray (~10 years old, first-fill bourbon barrel), 10% from a distillery near the town of Aberlour (~6 years old, revatted Oloroso sherry-seasoned butt), 2% Caol Ila (~8 years old, first-fill bourbon barrel), and 2% Highland malt blend (~10 years old, custom French oak barrel with heavy toast). Bright orchard fruit — crisp apple and pear, pineapple, lemon zest, and Earl Grey tea on the nose. The palate brings honey, vanilla shortbread, malty ginger, wild strawberries, and subtle spice. Natural color, non-chill filtered.

ABV: 46% | Cask: First-Fill Bourbon, Oloroso Sherry & French Oak

Price: $44.99

Typical US Market Range: $50–$60

Savings: A few bucks below what most retailers charge, but the real story here isn't the discount — it's the value proposition for what's in the bottle.

Who's this for: If you read the Worth Knowing section this week and thought "okay, blended malts sound interesting but where do I start?" — this is the answer. Compass Box Orchard House is the perfect entry point into what blended malts can do. You're getting Clynelish's waxy character, Linkwood's apple blossom and vanilla, a touch of Caol Ila smoke, Glen Moray's malty fudge, sherry influence from Aberlour, and spice from the French oak — all at 46%, non-chill filtered, natural color, for under $45. No single distillery could give you this combination of flavors. That's the entire point of blending, and Compass Box executes it better than anyone. If you only buy one bottle from this week's deals, make it this one. It'll change how you think about blended malt whisky.

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Compass Box's flagship limited release, now in its 8th edition, released to celebrate the company's 25th anniversary. This one is all peated malts and French oak — no unpeated component for the first time in the series. The recipe: 48.1% Talisker (~17 years old, recharred American oak hogshead), 35.5% Benrinnes (~17 years old, custom French oak barrel with a 4-year finish), 13.4% "Williamson" Islay malt (~14 years old, recharred American oak hogshead), and 3% Laphroaig (~18 years old, first-fill Marsala barrique with a 2-year finish). For those unfamiliar, "Williamson" is an industry name that refers to Laphroaig — so you're actually getting two different expressions of Laphroaig in this blend, each treated completely differently. And look at those ages — 17 year old Talisker, 17 year old Benrinnes, 14 and 18 year old Laphroaig components. If any single distillery bottled whisky at these ages, you'd be paying significantly more than $125. Rich, oily smoke on the nose with raspberry, apricot, cookie dough, and tarry rope. The palate is dense — clove, pink and black pepper, nutmeg, medicinal peat, and bright winey fruit. Long smoky finish with menthol, citrus oils, and ashy wood. Only 9,384 bottles produced globally. Natural color, non-chill filtered.

ABV: 48.9% | Cask: American Oak, Custom French Oak & Marsala Barrique

Price: $124.99 (marked down from $154.99)

Typical US Market Range: $150–$190

Savings: $25–$65 under what most retailers are asking. The SRP on this bottle is $165. Finding it under $125 is uncommon.

Who's this for: If the Orchard House is your introduction to blended malts, this is where you go when you're ready to see what the category can really do. Compass Box took the Flaming Heart concept and stripped it down to its most essential elements — just peated malts and French oak, nothing else. The fact that they used Talisker, Benrinnes, and two separate Laphroaig components — one at 14 years in recharred American oak, one at 18 years in Marsala barrique — and made them work together as a cohesive whisky is a masterclass in blending. Now think about the math. A 17 year old Talisker single malt would run you $200+ if Diageo bottled it. An 18 year old Laphroaig? You're well past $250. A 17 year old Benrinnes from an independent bottler would be $150+ on its own. Compass Box blended all of that together, bottled it at 48.9% with no chill filtration, and it's sitting on a shelf for $125. That's not just a good deal on a blended malt — that's a good deal on well-aged Scotch, period. You're not tasting four distilleries fighting for attention — you're tasting one vision assembled from four sources, all of them carrying serious age. That's what separates great blending from just mixing things together.

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A blended malt produced and bottled at Springbank Distillery using all five malts from Campbeltown's three distilleries: Springbank, Longrow, and Hazelburn (all from Springbank Distillery), Kilkerran (from Glengyle Distillery), and Glen Scotia. That means you're getting a combination of peated and unpeated spirit, double-distilled and triple-distilled spirit, worm tub and shell-and-tube condensed spirit — all in one bottle. Matured in ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks. Buttery sea salt, ginger loaf, and pecan pie on the nose. Creamy coffee, salted caramel, date syrup, and crystallised brown sugar on the palate with subtle peat smoke. The smoke builds on the finish with a leathery note.

ABV: 46% | Cask: Ex-Bourbon & Ex-Sherry

Price: $57.99 (marked down from $69.99)

Typical US Market Range: $60–$80

Savings: Solid pricing on a bottle that gets marked up aggressively outside of Europe thanks to the Springbank name.

Who's this for: If you've been trying to get your hands on Springbank 10, Hazelburn, Longrow, or Kilkerran and keep striking out — this is going to scratch that itch. Campbeltown Loch gives you that unmistakable Springbank funk, the maritime salt, the oily texture, the dirty mineral character that makes Campbeltown whisky unlike anything else in Scotland. The fact that it contains all five malts from the region's three distilleries means you're essentially tasting an entire whisky region in one glass. At 46%, non-chill filtered, and bottled at Springbank — this isn't some corporate blend trying to smooth out character. It's everything that makes Campbeltown weird and wonderful, handed to you at under $60.

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The cask strength version of one of Islay's most iconic single malts. Batch 17 comes in at a massive 58.3% ABV (116.6 proof). Stewed apple, vanilla cream, and pears in syrup sit alongside sea salt, herbal smoke, crisp seaweed, and cooling menthol. This is Laphroaig with the volume turned all the way up — the medicinal peat, the iodine, the bandage-and-bonfire character that defines the distillery, all delivered at full cask strength. Non-chill filtered, natural color.

ABV: 58.3% (116.6 proof) | Cask: Ex-Bourbon

Price: $79.99

Typical US Market Range: $85–$110

Savings: Comfortably under what most retailers charge. Laphroaig Cask Strength has been creeping up in price every batch, and finding it under $80 is getting harder.

Who's this for: You'll be hard pressed to find a better Islay cask strength single malt at a price this good. This is one of those bottles that peat lovers already know about — Laphroaig Cask Strength is consistently one of the highest-value propositions in all of Scotch whisky. A 10 year old, cask strength, non-chill filtered Islay single malt for $80. Compare that to what Ardbeg or Lagavulin charges for their cask strength releases and the math isn't even close. If you're a peat drinker and you don't have a bottle of Laphroaig CS on your shelf, fix that.

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The heavily peated expression from Bruichladdich, distilled, matured, and bottled entirely on Islay. Port Charlotte is Bruichladdich's answer to the classic Islay peat style — 40 PPM, 100% Scottish barley, matured in a mix of first-fill and second-fill American whisky casks and second-fill French wine casks. Bottled at 50% ABV (100 proof), non-chill filtered, no added color. This is muscular, maritime, and unapologetically peated.

ABV: 50% (100 proof) | Cask: American Whisky & French Wine Casks

Price: $51.99 (marked down from $69.99)

Typical US Market Range: $65–$75

Savings: $13–$23 under what most retailers charge. At $52, this is an absurd price for what you're getting.

Who's this for: One of the quintessential entry-level Islay single malts, and at this price, no other peated Islay can compete. Port Charlotte 10 gives you everything you want from Islay peat — campfire smoke, sea spray, medicinal tar — but with more structure and weight than the standard Laphroaig 10 or Ardbeg 10 at their usual ABV. At 50%, non-chill filtered, with an age statement, for $52 — do the math. You're getting a 10 year old, cask strength-adjacent Islay single malt for barely more than what most distilleries charge for their entry-level, 40% ABV, chill filtered offerings. If you're curious about peated Scotch and haven't tried Port Charlotte, this is your on-ramp. If you already know you love Islay, this is the bottle you keep on hand at all times.

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Drew Beard at Drinkhacker took a deep dive into the 25th Anniversary Flaming Heart, noting that lead whisky-maker James Saxon concentrated on a simpler, peat-focused recipe than past releases. On the nose he found oily smoke, salty sea spray, camphor, bonfire s'mores with extra toasted marshmallow, marmalade on toast, and an earthy hint of horse stalls. The palate was unctuous and round — warm pie spice and honey syrup leading into cigar wrapper, peppery barbecued meats, and blackberry jam. But it was the finish that really got him — a long, silky embrace of sweet lemon oil, clove syrup, chocolate sauce, nougatine, and creamy campfire smoke. He called it one of the best stitched-together whiskies he's tasted from Compass Box.

Score: A

Full Review Here

My take: "One of the best stitched-together whiskies" — that's the key phrase. This isn't a bottle where you taste four distilleries doing their own thing. It's a whisky where 17 year old Talisker, 17 year old Benrinnes, and two different Laphroaig components merge into something none of those distilleries could produce on their own. Drew's tasting notes bounce from campfire to bakery to cigar lounge, and that range of flavor from just four components is exactly what makes Compass Box's blending approach so impressive. If this week's Worth Knowing section got you curious about blended malts, here's a professional reviewer telling you this is the real deal.

Ruben at Words of Whisky — a long-running independent Scotch blog — reviewed Batch 17 and found sandalwood, bonfire smoke, and oily kippers on the nose, along with olive brine, nori sheets, tinned pineapple, and smoked honey. On the palate he got iodine, fresh tar, rubber, Szechuan pepper, cough syrup, sweet malt, and charred oak, with stewed fruits lingering in the background. He called it a wild ride that delivers, though not one for everybody — noting that while he described the nose as relatively mellow, that's only compared to some previous batches. He also flagged that despite being marketed as a natural whisky, Batch 17 uses caramel coloring (E150a), which he questioned given that the whole point of a batch-strength product is natural variation.

Score: 8.7

Full Review Here

My take: The E150a detail is worth knowing. Laphroaig markets this as a natural, uncompromised cask strength experience — barrier filtered, non-chill filtered, drawn straight from the barrel — but then adds caramel coloring. It's a small thing and it probably doesn't change the taste meaningfully, but it's the kind of inconsistency that's worth calling out. That said, the whisky itself is excellent. Ruben's tasting notes read like a flavor encyclopedia, and that's what you get from Laphroaig at full cask strength — a whisky that keeps revealing layers every time you go back to the glass. At $80, the complexity-per-dollar ratio is hard to beat.

Margarett Waterbury at The Whiskey Wash gave Port Charlotte 10 a detailed look and found balanced tangerine, cereal grains, and a madeira-like nuttiness on the nose, with a combination of almond, allspice, and lime. She noted the smoke reads more like a wood fire than the antiseptic character of some other Islay malts. The palate brought very dark caramel, chocolate, incense-like smoke, and a savory meatiness. She found it rather closed neat but delicious with a bit of water, and called it a lovely whisky and a startlingly good value.

Score: 8

Full Review Here

My take: Margarett's observation about the smoke style is important — Port Charlotte doesn't hit you with the medicinal, iodine-forward peat you get from Laphroaig. It's more campfire, more earthy, more approachable. That's what makes it such a great entry-level Islay. And her note about it opening up with water is worth remembering — at 50% ABV, a few drops of water don't dilute this thing, they unlock it. At $52 from Hi Proof, the "startlingly good value" assessment hits even harder than when she wrote it.

If you hear "blended Scotch" and immediately think of the bottom shelf — the plastic-handled Dewars your uncle pours over ice at a cookout — I get it. That reputation exists for a reason. For decades, the whisky world has drilled one message into consumers' heads: single malt good, blend bad. It's one of the most persistent myths in all of spirits, and it's dead wrong.

Let's start with what these terms actually mean, because Scotch whisky regulations actually define five distinct categories — and most people couldn't name more than two.

The foundation of all of it is one simple rule: if it's 100% malted barley distilled in pot stills, it's malt whisky. Anything else — different grain, different still type, or both — falls under grain whisky. Every category flows from that distinction.

Single Malt Scotch Whisky — Malt whisky from a single distillery. 100% malted barley, pot stills, one distillery. "Single" doesn't mean one barrel or one batch — it means one distillery. A bottle of Lagavulin 16 can contain whisky from hundreds of different casks, all distilled at Lagavulin. As long as every drop comes from the same place, it's a single malt.

Single Grain Scotch Whisky — Grain whisky from a single distillery. This could be corn in a pot still, malted barley in a column still, wheat in a column still — any combination of grain and still type that doesn't qualify as malt whisky. As long as it all comes from one distillery, it's a single grain. Most people have never seen a bottle of single grain Scotch, but they exist — and the good ones can be surprisingly complex.

Blended Malt Scotch Whisky — Malt whiskies from two or more distilleries. This is the category that deserves way more attention than it gets. Still 100% malted barley, still all pot still distilled, but sourced from more than one place. No grain whisky in the mix. Think of it as a single malt that isn't limited to one distillery's character. This used to be called "vatted malt" and the name change to "blended malt" was arguably a disaster for the category, because people see the word "blended" and lump it in with the cheap stuff.

Blended Grain Scotch Whisky — Grain whiskies from two or more distilleries. This is the category almost nobody knows exists. It's the grain whisky equivalent of a blended malt — multiple distilleries, no malt whisky in the mix. It's a tiny category, but when it's done well it can be genuinely eye-opening.

Blended Scotch Whisky — Malt whisky combined with grain whisky. This is the big one. Combine any malt whisky with any grain whisky from any number of distilleries and you've got a blended Scotch. This is the category that includes Johnnie Walker, Dewars, Chivas, and basically everything that dominates the global market. Blended Scotch accounts for the vast majority of all Scotch sold worldwide. And here's the thing — some of it is genuinely excellent.

So why does "blended" have such a bad reputation?

Because the biggest-selling blends in the world are designed for volume, not complexity. When you're producing Johnnie Walker Red Label at the scale Diageo operates, the goal is consistency and mixability, not depth. The grain whisky does most of the heavy lifting, the malt component adds flavor, and the whole thing is designed to taste the same whether you buy it in New York or New Delhi. There's nothing wrong with that — it's just not what you're reaching for when you want to sit down and actually think about what you're drinking.

But that's the commodity end of the category. The top end is a completely different story.

Enter Compass Box.

If there's one producer that has single-handedly made the case that blends and blended malts can stand shoulder to shoulder with the best single malts in the world, it's Compass Box. Founded in 2000 by John Glaser — a former Johnnie Walker marketing director who left Diageo to do things his own way — Compass Box has built its entire identity around the art of blending. They source casks from distilleries across Scotland, and Glaser and his team assemble them into whiskies that are more interesting than what most single malt distilleries are putting out at twice the price.

Their lineup is the proof of concept. Hedonism is a blended grain Scotch whisky — grain whiskies from multiple distilleries, no malt whisky in the mix — that's creamy, rich, and complex enough to change how you think about grain whisky entirely. The Peat Monster is a blended malt that delivers serious smoke without being one-dimensional. Spice Tree is a blended malt with a cinnamon-forward spice character that you won't find in any single distillery's range. And their limited releases — Flaming Heart, No Name, Brulee Royale— regularly go toe to toe with single malts that cost three or four times as much.

What Compass Box understands is that blending isn't about cutting corners — it's about having more tools to work with. A single malt distillery is limited to what their stills, their water source, and their cask program can produce. A great blender has access to the entire map of Scottish whisky and can combine elements that no single distillery could create on its own. That's not a compromise. That's an advantage.

The bottom line: "Single malt" is a production method, not a quality guarantee. Some of the worst whiskies I've ever had were single malts, and some of the most interesting pours I've had came from blenders who knew how to combine components in a way that made the whole thing greater than the sum of its parts. If you've been ignoring blended malts and blended Scotch entirely, you're cutting yourself off from some of the best whisky being made right now. Start with anything from Compass Box and tell me I'm wrong.

Ellers Farm Distillery in Yorkshire just unveiled Three Ridings, a new English single malt co-owned by comedian Ricky Gervais. The distillery — which is also home to Dutch Barn Vodka — is making 1,000 individually numbered bottles available as part of an Evolution Collection, with a wider release planned later this year. The launch comes with a four-part documentary covering the full malting, brewing, and distilling process behind the whisky.

My take: Celebrity whisky almost always leaves a lot to be desired. Chris Stapleton's Traveller whiskey with Buffalo Trace is the poster child. It's a sourced blend that tastes like it was designed by a marketing team who's never actually sat down and enjoyed a pour of anything. Thin, forgettable, and priced like you're supposed to be grateful a country singer put his name on the label. That's the standard playbook: famous person licenses their name, a big distillery slaps together something inoffensive, and they both collect a check while you pretend it was worth $40.

But every once in a while, someone does it right. Nick Offerman and Lagavulin worked because it wasn't manufactured — the guy had been publicly drinking Lagavulin for years before any partnership existed. When they finally made it official, it felt earned. You weren't buying a celebrity bottle. You were buying a Lagavulin that happened to have a celebrity attached to it. That's the difference.

What makes the Gervais thing interesting is the setup. He's not licensing his name to an existing brand — he co-owns the actual distillery. They're leading with a documentary about the process instead of a press tour. And they're keeping the first release to 1,000 bottles instead of trying to flood shelves on day one. That's either a genuinely thoughtful approach to building a whisky brand, or it's very good marketing. Maybe both. Either way, it's a better starting point than 90% of celebrity spirit launches.

Will it be good? No idea. English single malt is still a young category that's proving itself. But the approach is right, and I'd rather see a celebrity actually build something than stamp their name on someone else's liquid and call it a passion project.

That's it for this week. If you've been sleeping on blended malts, I hope this issue made you reconsider. And if you already knew — welcome to the right side of the argument.

If you know someone who'd be into this, forward it their way. More people on the list means better deals, better content, and more leverage when I go knocking on doors for exclusive offers.

Shoot me an email if you’ve made it this far and if you’ve decided to buy anything.

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— Tim