American Whiskey Distillers Are Reclaiming the Bourbon-Rye Blend
And savvy collectors are tuning in to the tastes you can’t get anyway else.
Illustration by Ian Grandjean for Bloomberg Businessweek
Hello savvy drinkers, Brad Japhe here to dig into a controversial topic: American whiskey blends.
Whisky makers in the British Isles tend to view blending as an art; there’s a reason Johnnie Walker has kept on walking for more than 200 years. But in the US, blended whiskey is synonymous with flavorless, super-high-proof filler known as grain neutral alcohol. Popular American blended whiskeys such as Seagram’s 7 Crown and Kentucky Gentleman legally can be loaded with as much as 80% of it, which is why they’re often derided as “whiskey-flavored vodka.”