Starting out

Choosing your first three whiskeys

2 minute read · The Blending School

The founding pours are the bottle's opening argument. They are not permanent, but they set the direction everything after them bends toward or away from.

A simple framework: base, spice, heat

• The base. A whiskey you would call comfortable: a solid caramel-and-vanilla bourbon in the 90 to 100 proof range. This is the bottle's center of gravity.
• The spice. A rye, or a high-rye bourbon. Rye brings pepper and herb notes that keep a blend from tasting flat, and a little goes a long way.
• The heat. Something barrel proof. High-proof pours carry flavor and keep the blend's proof from sagging as lower-proof whiskeys join over time.

Two ounces of each gives you six ounces at a blended proof somewhere near the middle of the three, and the exact number is one multiplication away: the proof math.

What to hold back at the start

Heavily peated Scotch, strong finishes like port or maderia casks, and anything with pronounced smoke. Not because they are wrong, but because they dominate. An ounce of Islay in a six ounce bottle is a smoke bottle now, and you have made that decision for the next year. Save the strong personalities until the bottle has enough volume to absorb them, or commit on purpose and build a smoke bottle from day one.

Combinations that work

• The Kentucky start: a wheated bourbon, a high-rye bourbon, and a barrel-proof pour. Deep, sweet, warm.
• The spice-forward start: a straight rye, a bottled-in-bond bourbon, and a rye-finished anything. Bright and peppery.
• The world tour: a bourbon, an Irish single pot still, and an unpeated Highland malt. Softer, orchard-fruit territory.

There is no wrong answer that involves whiskey you like. There is only one actual mistake: founding the bottle with pours you were trying to get rid of.