Blended whisky is back, and it’s better than you remember.
The Dalmore Concludes Cask Curation Series with $47k Madeira Cask Edition
READ THE STORYWith single malt prices climbing and quality blends stepping up, 2025 is the year smart drinkers are stocking their shelves with bottles that deliver big on flavor without breaking the bank.
From budget gems to quiet icons, these are the best value blended whiskies worth your time (and money) this year.
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Thompson Brothers TB-BSW
A bottle that is being talked about for all of the right reasons. Hailing from the Thompson Bros gurus, this blend is a combination of whiskies from first-fill sherry casks and refill sherry casks.
Combining excellent quality grain whiskies at a minimum of six years old, this is a blend that really does tow the line between sumptuously sweet and a little salty and savoury, too.
Notes of miso, marinated plums, brown sugar, and some coffee notes, as well. All of this incredibly complex flavour for £35 a bottle. Insane quality and value.
Johnnie Walker Black Label
I’ve always had the mindset of, if it isn’t broken, then don’t fix it. When it comes to price, quality, and availability, how do you look any further than Johnnie Walker Black Label?
Combining malt whiskies for nearly every region of Scotland, with grain whiskies from North British and Cameronbridge, you get a whisky that can literally do everything you want.
It is coloured and chill-filtered, but that’s what you get with 99% of all supermarket brands. So don’t let that dissuade you if you’re yet to try, as it is a solid shelf staple.
Woven Homemade
If you’re yet to hear or try anything from Woven, then this is going to be quite a ride for you.
This blend is less about experimentation and more about history. This style recreates some of those old-style Leith blends that focused heavily on sherry. Malts and grain that have been matured in a combination of Palo Cortado and Pedro Ximenez sherry casks.
A very grassy style blend with notes of honey and apple, it has a very Speyside feel about it, with the inclusion of some vanilla-driven grain whiskies that offset the richness of those sherry casks.
Black Bull 12 Year Old
A massively under-the-radar brand that has been around for well over a century. A combination of Scottish malts and grain whiskies that are matured in both ex-bourbon and ex-Oloroso sherry casks, then bottled at 50% ABV!
This is a bold, punchy, weighty style of blend that is often mistaken for a malt whisky in a lot of blind tastings that I’ve run over the years.
It’s also part of the Duncan Taylor company, so if you’re familiar with their single cask bottlings, this is their house blended whisky. Certainly a good company to be involved with.
Ardray Blended Scotch Whisky
When this bottle came out, I think a lot of people let out a sigh of Edrington-Beam Suntory trying to get into the Compass Box area of blended whisky. However, when I tried this at an early launch, it was actually quite tasty!
A combination of all of the Scottish whiskies under the then Edrington-Beam Suntory company, so: Glen Garioch, Bowmore, Laphroaig, Auchentoshan, The Macallan, Highland Park, Glenrothes, and Ardmore. Along with grain whiskeys sourced from the 50/50 owned North British distillery.
This is Scottish liquids blended by the team at Suntory for all things balance and delicacy. After buying a bottle, this thing got better and better the further it went down. Notes of very subtle peat with rich spiced honey and sherry notes all over the place. A genuinely good blend, albeit a little more expensive than the test of the bottles on this list.
White Heather 15 Year Old
Do you like Billy Walker’s whiskies? Well, this is the blend that he makes.
Bottled at 46% ABV and a minimum of 15 years old, White Heather combines a range of Scottish single malts from Speyside, the Highland, and Islay to give you this very BBQ pineapple profile. The grain whiskies then show off with these salted caramel butterscotch notes.
The smoke is a little more present on the finish and it becomes a little earthier with ginger and some soft wood influences. But in all honesty, what an absolute steal for the money. This bottle has all the good points of Johnnie Walker Green Label, with everything turned up a little more.
Final Pour
From £35 supermarket sleepers to sherried blends with cult potential, 2025 is shaping up as the year blended whisky reclaims its crown. If you’ve been chasing age statements and single malts, maybe it’s time to look sideways, not down.
These bottles prove that balance, character, and value can still share a label. The only real question is – which one are you opening first?
