The Scotch Whisky Masters is run by The Spirits Business as part of its annual Global Whisky Masters competition, and its judges taste everything blind. The 2026 results were published on August 7, and nine blended Scotch whiskies came away with Master medals, the top award in the competition.
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READ THE STORYThe blends were judged in two stages, first in flights grouped by age statement and then again in flights grouped by price. Chivas Brothers took four of the nine Masters, all from its Royal Salute range, and Diageo took three. The remaining two went to Sassenach Spirits and to the independent bottler Atom Brands.
So, let’s take a closer look at the nine whiskies that took the highest honors at this year’s competition. Let us know in the comments if you agree with the judges, or would like to have seen a different whisky grab a Master medal.
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Johnnie Walker Black Ruby
Award: Master
Category: Blended – Super-Premium
Tasting Notes: Berries, honey, figs, plums, maraschino cherries, sweetness
Find Your Next Bottle: $33 / £27
Black Ruby is the newest whisky on this list, and the first core range addition Dr. Emma Walker has made since becoming Johnnie Walker’s master blender in early 2022. It launched worldwide, including global travel retail, in March 2025, after a run of trials in Mexico City, Sydney, and San Juan the year before.
Diageo has been unusually open about what goes into it. The backbone comes from Roseisle in Speyside, with whisky from Clynelish, Glenkinchie, Cardhu, Cameronbridge, and Caol Ila also in the blend. The Roseisle component is matured in first-fill red wine casks, alongside oloroso and Pedro Ximénez sherry-seasoned casks and ex-bourbon barrels. It carries no age statement and is bottled at 40% ABV.
The judges found “juicy nectarine and classic raisin” on the nose, followed by “caramel, toffee, a decent level of spice.” Johnnie Walker Black Label took a Gold in the Premium flight directly below this one.
That Boutique-y Whisky Company Blended Grain
Award: Master
Category: Blended Grain – Ultra-Premium
Tasting Notes: Honeycomb, red grapes, shortbread, orange peel, polished oak, butterscotch, chocolate chunks, cedar, white pepper
Find Your Next Bottle: $94 / £74.95
The only independent bottling among the nine winners, and the only blended grain. That Boutique-y Whisky Company is part of Atom Brands, the group behind the retailer Master of Malt, and it has been bottling since 2012. Its labels are drawn by the artist Emily Chappell, and the blended grain carries an aging deer that grows older across the range.
The whisky is 30 years old and comes from a marriage of refill casks, both ex-bourbon hogsheads and ex-sherry octaves, released in small batches of around 1,000 liters at a time. It is bottled at 45.8% ABV, non-chill filtered, with natural color. The component distilleries are not disclosed.
The judges recorded a “soft and buttery nose, with intricate orchard fruits.” The same whisky won a Master in this category at the 2024 edition of the competition.
A quick note, the winning whisky was listed only as “That Boutique-y Whisky Company Blended Grain”. The company makes multiple blended grain whiskies, with this 30-year-old being the core expression.
Old Parr 18 Year Old
Award: Master
Category: Blended – Aged Between 13 and 18 Years
Tasting Notes: Apple, citrus, dried fruit, vanilla, oak
Find Your Next Bottle: $60 / £75
Old Parr is named after Thomas Parr, who was said to be Britain’s oldest man when he died in 1635, reportedly aged 152. Brothers James and Samuel Greenlees set up as whisky blenders and merchants in London in 1871 and created the blend in 1909. The company passed through a series of mergers into the Distillers Company in 1925, and the brand belongs to Diageo today.
Cragganmore is the basis of the blend, and Glendullan has been a major component since the Second World War. The whisky is aged for a minimum of 18 years and sold in the brand’s dimpled, crackle-textured bottle, sealed with the founders’ signatures.
Judges described “chocolate, black spices, and toffee apples.” Old Parr is far better known in Latin America and Japan than in Britain, and the 18 became a permanent portfolio addition in February 2022, reaching a handful of US states.
The Sassenach Blended Scotch Whisky
Award: Master
Category: Blended – No Age Statement
Tasting Notes: Fruity, grain sweetness, rich, complex
Find Your Next Bottle: $130 / £80
Sassenach Spirits was set up by the Scottish actor Sam Heughan, who plays Jamie Fraser in Outlander, and the American entrepreneur Alex Norouzi. The word sassenach is a Scots term for an outsider, and it is also what Jamie calls Claire in the series. The whisky was released in early 2020 as the first product from the company.
Celebrity ownership tends to invite skepticism, though the blending here was done by Michael Henry, master blender at Loch Lomond Distillery in the Highlands. More than half of the whisky is single malt aged between 9 and 12 years, married with a 20 year old organic single grain matured in bourbon barrels, and the blend is finished in Madeira casks. It is bottled at 46% ABV, non-chill filtered, with natural color.
The judges noted a “spicy, rye-like nose,” with a “brilliant palate; rich, smooth, perfectly integrated alcohol, Bourbon cask barrels showing chocolate fudge, baked banana and dried orange blossoms.”
Johnnie Walker Blue Label
Award: Master
Category: Blended – Ultra-Premium
Tasting Notes: Pepper, hazelnuts, citrus, vanilla sweetness, honey, smoke
Find Your Next Bottle: $190 / £147
Johnnie Walker Blue Label surely needs no introduction, as the premium blend in the Johnnie Walker range.
Johnnie Walker traces back to 1820, when John Walker began selling whisky from his grocery in Kilmarnock, but Blue Label is a much more recent arrival. It launched under the Blue Label name in 1992, blended to recall the character of early 19th-century whiskies, and it now sits at the top of the core range under master blender Dr. Emma Walker.
Diageo has consistently stated that only one cask in every 10,000 is chosen for the blend, including stock from ghost distilleries. There is no age statement, but it is thought that the blend contains high-aged whiskies, thanks to dwindling stock from said ghost distilleries.
Bottles are numbered individually and packaged in a silk-lined box. It is bottled at 40% ABV.
The judges recorded “nice orchard-fruit aromas, a touch of pepper, great mouthfeel.”
Royal Salute 21 Years Old Signature Blend
Award: Master
Category: Blended – Aged Between 19 and 30 Years
Tasting Notes: Pear, citrus, vanilla, oak, smoke, marmalade, spices, hazelnut
Find Your Next Bottle: $210 / £110
Chivas Brothers launched Royal Salute 21 Year Old on June 2, 1953, the day of Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation, and named it after the 21-gun salute, a military honor which involves firing cannon or artillery rounds to mark major events.
The original blend was put together by master blender Charles Julian, who chose whiskies casked in the 1920s and 1930s, and the brand says the recipe has not changed since.
Every component is aged for a minimum of 21 years, a standard Royal Salute applies across its entire range. The whisky is produced at Strathisla in Speyside, the oldest working distillery in the Highlands, and bottled at 40% ABV. The first flagons were green, with blue arriving later and becoming the color most people associate with the brand.
Royal Salute 23 Years Old Taiwanese Edition
Award: Master
Category: Blended – Aged Between 19 and 30 Years
Tasting Notes: Honey, fruit, spice
Find Your Next Bottle: N/A
Most readers will struggle to buy this one, because it was made for Taiwan and is not part of the general Royal Salute range. Taiwan has become one of the most important markets in world whisky, and Chivas Brothers has produced successive editions there, including a 2022 bottling described as a tribute to the natural beauty of Formosa, the older name for the island.
The whisky is aged for a minimum of 23 years, bottled at 40% ABV in 70cl, and presented in a purple decanter, with the color chosen for its associations in Taiwan. Bottles do turn up at auction and through specialist retailers outside Taiwan, though availability is unpredictable.
Royal Salute 30 Years Old Key to the Kingdom
Award: Master
Category: Blended – Aged Between 19 and 30 Years
Tasting Notes: Pears, blood orange, honey, oak, redcurrants, bonfire smoke, candied walnuts, peaches in syrup
Find Your Next Bottle: $769 / £615
Launched in 2022, Key to the Kingdom takes its name from the Ceremony of the Keys, held each year at Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh, where the keys to the city are presented to the reigning monarch. Every whisky in the blend is aged for a minimum of 30 years and was hand-selected from across Scotland by Sandy Hyslop, then Royal Salute’s master blender. It comes in a granite-effect flagon topped with a stopper based on the hilt of an ancient Scottish sword, in a box illustrated with imagery from the ceremony.
Hyslop has since retired, but became master blender emeritus in January 2026, and Kevin Balmforth, who had worked on the Chivas Brothers blending team for 25 years, took over the role.
The judges pointed out the whisky’s notes as “dry and crisp, a little salinity, dried fruit vanilla, oak.”
Royal Salute 62 Gun Salute Original Reserve
Award: Master
Category: Blended – No Age Statement
Tasting Notes: Sweet orange, nuts, oak, smoke, plums, dark chocolate, cinnamon
Find Your Next Bottle: $3,375 / £2,700
The most expensive whisky here by a wide margin, and the one with the most unusual position in the range. Royal Salute takes its name from the 21-gun salute, but the 62-gun salute is the highest ceremonial honor in British tradition, fired from the Tower of London for the most significant royal occasions.
Despite carrying no age statement, this is the oldest whisky Royal Salute produces. The blend draws on casks set aside over the years by successive Royal Salute master blenders, beginning with Charles Julian, and retailers describe component whiskies of around 40 years or more. It is bottled at 43% ABV, a step up from the 40% used across most of the range.
The decanter is hand-crafted by Dartington Crystal in midnight blue, decorated with 24-carat gold and finished with a cut crystal stopper. The judges found “brown sugar, molasses, baked banana, and smoked tropical fruit” on the nose.
What Do You Make of the Results?
Chivas Brothers and Diageo took seven of the nine Master medals between them, which is partly a story about who holds deep stocks of well-aged whisky. Royal Salute alone accounts for four, and three of those came from a single flight.
Have you tried any of these nine? Are there any you would like to get your hands on, and what do you make of the awards? Let us know in the comments.
