Single malt has been the great Scotch whisky success story of the 21st century. Its dramatic rise in popularity has been driven largely by marketers, drinks journalists, and influencers, promoting this spirit made exclusively from malted barley as Scotland’s traditional style of whisky. Their view has official support: according to the Scotch Whisky Association’s website, “Until [the 1830s], the spirit – illicit or otherwise – had been malt whisky.”
It’s a great story, simply told – but it’s not entirely true. Historically, malt whisky was not Scotland’s only traditional style and, arguably, it was never even the most popular. Mixed grain whisky, pot distilled from a mash containing any of a number of different cereals mixed with malted barley, was the type best known to generations of Scottish drinkers.
Grains other than malted barley have been used to make spirits in Scotland for centuries. The teacher and traveller Martin Martin, for example, toured the Isle of Lewis in 1699 and noted that there were three types of whisky
