We know that blenders blend whiskies together to create a complex mix of flavours – but how can we find out what the practical effect of tweaking the levers is?

The creative geniuses over at Maverick Drinks have come up with a way of illustrating it in a lovely, tasteable package with The Reference Series.  A collection of 3 blended malt whiskies (cunningly titled I, II, and III) both made with the same ingredients (A young & vibrant blended malt, an older and more complex & spicy blended malt, an old single malt, and a very old single malt indeed) in different proportions.

They then took the base blend and “altered” them variously, such as adding 10% peaty Islay whisky to the mix, or ageing the mixture in a sherry cask for a while, and there are other tweaks as allowed under Scotch whisky rules so that the keen taster can see what the effect on the overall flavour might be for a certain character of spirit.  Fascinating stuff!