Two new collections of highly limited old whiskies – one of single malts, the other focused on blends and grain – show just how varied Scotch can be. The blended whiskies and single grains are reviewed here…
The Gordon family is no stranger to single-malt whisky. Also known as the Grant-Gordons, they are the owners of William Grant & Sons and therefore Glenfiddich, the first globally known and still the biggest producer of single malt. However, the company and the family itself have always traded, collected, stocked and blended whisky. And occasionally the rest of us are allowed a peep at the family reserve, in the form of a collection of bottlings named after the family’s private home – House of Hazelwood.
What marks it out as a bottler, however, is that it doesn’t release single malts. Instead, it showcases the best of Scotland’s other great whisky styles: blends, single grain and blended malts. Put simply, the first is made up of combinations of the latter two.
Where malt whisky is made from just one original cereal grain – barley that has been allowed to part-germinate (or malt) – grain whisky is made with a combination of grains. That can include wheat, maize, rye, unmalted barley and malted barley. (It’s roughly the basis of Irish pot-still whisky and American bourbon.) In Scotland, it’s made in large quantities in tall column stills at fairly industrial facilities. It’s light and sweet, easy-drinking, and that’s why it makes up the majority of a bottle of blended whisky, mixed with various malts to add flavour.
One of the biggest grain distilleries is Girvan, built in the 1960s by Charles Gordon. Over the years a few casks have been set aside to age significantly, and, it turns out, the workhorse of Scotch ages into a thoroughbred. So, House of Hazelwood bottles the best of it as a single-grain whisky (with the single referring to a single distillery, in the same way as a single malt).
(1)
The Silent Partner 47YO Blended Scotch Whisky (46.7% ABV; 228 bottles; £3,300)
(2)
A Fond Farewell 46YO Blended Malt Scotch Whisky (43.8% ABV; 252 bottles; £4,000)
(3)
An Organised Whole 45YO Blended Malt Scotch Whisky (47.3% ABV; 267 bottles; £3,200)
(4)
A Different World 1977 Single Grain Scotch Whisky (57.2% ABV; 219 bottles; £3,200)
(1)
The Silent Partner 47YO Blended Scotch Whisky (46.7% ABV; 228 bottles; £3,300)
(2)
A Fond Farewell 46YO Blended Malt Scotch Whisky (43.8% ABV; 252 bottles; £4,000)
(3)
An Organised Whole 45YO Blended Malt Scotch Whisky (47.3% ABV; 267 bottles; £3,200)
(4)
A Different World 1977 Single Grain Scotch Whisky (57.2% ABV; 219 bottles; £3,200)
The 2026 Charles Gordon Collection includes a classic of the genre – a 48YO from 1977, called A Different World, distilled from a maize-led mash bill on the original stills. It’s the herb notes you get from Girvan this old that are so remarkable, in among the creamy and sweet butterscotch and crème brûlée flavours.
Blended whisky is still the biggest-selling sector of Scotch, but it’s rare to find very old blends because every liquid ingredient that goes into it must be over the age statement of the whisky. The 2026 Charles Gordon Collection includes a 47YO blended Scotch called The Silent Partner. It combines an undeclared “Lowland grain” whisky (which Girvan is) with Highland malts. There is a subtly smoky undertone to this whisky – coming from one of the Highland distilleries (again undeclared). In the 1970s, it was not unusual for distilleries in Speyside and the Highlands to use peated malt. But, unlike the peat of the islands in the west, which carry maritime and medicinal notes, this turf was more mossy and heathery. That comes across in a dried bouquet of delicate florals. Meanwhile, both the grain whisky and the fact that some of the malts were aged in ex-bourbon casks provide honeyed notes from nose to tail.
Often, the whiskies House of Hazelwood releases are inspired by a slightly off-the-wall concept. There was a project inspired by the Wu-Tang Clan album that was recorded then buried so that no one can hear it for a century. This time, there’s a 45YO blended malt (different from a blended whisky, blended malts are assembled from malt whiskies from different distilleries) called An Organised Whole, from the Gestalt theory of psychology that says that the human brain sees everything in life as something beyond its compartmentalised components. This whisky is more than the sum of different Highland distillery characters and more than the influence of American and European oak. It is dark sugar and sherry and tannin and oil and sherbet all at once.
Not all blended malts have been vatted together with such a high concept. In the 1970s, the Gordon family would fill a Hogmanay cask with what you might call bin ends of different distillate from the year passing as a way of bidding goodbye to said year. A Fond Farewell is a 46YO blended malt from one of those casks. It’s a rich and decadent, spice, fruitcake and jam indulgence.
