Then it was the turn of the 2nd world war to upset matters when of
    course there was little or no production of any type of Scotch whisky,
   and even for a period following the war cereals were only available
    under a quota system for the production of whisky and other spirits.
There was an eager and thirsty world to satisfy and blended whisky was the cheapest most efficient route to follow in order to achieve that objective. As world markets began to be expanded and new one’s opened up, it appeared that this boom could go on unhindered for ever. Nothing lasts forever, and the lesson of earlier years had therefore either been forgotten or just ignored, and that is, just as blended Scotch had been able to replace other products in an earlier age, competition was beginning to appear from other parts of the globe which were to challenge the supremacy of the blended product.

In the meantime and after cereal quota’s had been lifted, in order to meet the perceived need to lay down increased stocks for future sales, the industry then embarked on a programme of distillery expansion in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s which included the re-building of existing facilities and indeed the building of completely new distilleries, both malt and grain.
                                                     
Capacity was increased to such an extent that the inevitable happened….too much stock had been produced, and by around 1969 the taps had to be turned down. This pattern has continued to the present day with frenetic distilling activity for short periods followed by periods of low activity.

In general terms it would not be unfair to suggest that in pursuit of maintaining market share the quality of many blended products has been affected in an adverse fashion and this has done nothing to enhance the reputation of Scotch whisky, which has seen more and more “cheapies” hit the market. Also the advent in more recent times of the Supermarket own label products with the resultant downward pressure on producers for lower prices, has not been totally helpful in preserving the high quality across the sector that the early trail blazers worked so hard to establish. It should be recognised however that as well as offering fairly non-descript products the supermarkets do offer the higher end of the market blends as well.
Blended Scotch whisky of course can only be produced in Scotland, but it ought to be bottled in Scotland also, and not tanked overseas for bottling elsewhere in some other corner of the world as is the practice followed by some companies today, and not all of them small companies. It is inconceivable to call a product by a country name if not all of the production/manufacturing procedures are not performed in that country.

It has also been the practice of some producers to lower the percentage of malt whiskies in their blends in order to present a lighter, cheaper , whisky. - It would be beneficial for the drinking public at large if all the constituent malts and grains in a blend were clearly marked and also whether or not colouring and any other additive had been used -
People would then be much better informed as to just what they were buying, and exactly what they were paying for in relation to getting value for money.

Blends, and I mean of the better variety, are good for weaning the drinking public onto Scotch whisky and in a perfect world should be regarded as a starter pack for the lighter malts, especially amongst the younger generation.

NOTE:  Most proprietary blends consist of approx. 30-35% malt whiskies and the balance is made up of approx. 65-70% grain whisky.
Most companies employ someone with greatly developed sensory perceptions; i.e. they have extremely sharp taste buds and an acute sense of smell, good for nosing the product. It is popularly thought that each blend conforms to a secret recipe, and whilst this is partly true, it is more likely that the Master Blender will work to certain formulae in order to maintain a particular blend’s quality standard. It is not always possible to blend exactly the same constituent whiskies into every operation year in year out, therefore great skill is required in picking and mixing the variants as and when necessary. - Almost without exception Blended Scotch whisky is bottled at a strength of 40% ABV. -

c) Single Malt Scotch Whisky - the product of a single malt distillery
There are approx. 90 working malt distilleries of which it would be reasonable to say that around 85% of these could be found in bottle somewhere.
By far the largest concentration of malt distilleries is to be found in the Speyside area with 36% of  them the rest are well spread over the country, with a notable exception being the Isle of Islay, with a figure of 7% all situated along and on various shorelines around the Island.
                                                           
Islay is known as whisky island, and it is not difficult to understand why. It is the most southerly of the Hebridean group of islands, 20 miles square and with little more than 3,500 inhabitants.

Each distillery possess it’s own water supply which is entirely private to them, and it is of more than passing interest to note that some many years ago, when there was a disagreement between the respective owners of Laphroaig and Lagavulin distilleries which are situated one mile apart from each other, that the Lagavulin people decide enough was enough! It was their view that they could produce identical spirit to that of Laphroaig by replicating the Laphroaig Stillhouse in a part of the site at Lagavulin.

They even lured the workforce from their competitor, by offering them a higher rate of pay, (so much for loyalty!), and they set to to produce the spirit with the intention of forcing Laphroaig out of business. The plan failed of course because having copied the plant and equipment, they could not copy Laphroaig’s dedicated water supply, which was from a completely different source, and Malt Mill as they had named their copy cat distillery closed down, leaving the workers to ask Mr Ian hunter the owner of Laphroaig, for their old jobs back. The feuding family who owned Lagavulin at that time, were the Mackie’s of White Horse blended Scotch whisky fame.       
No matter which producing region any particular malt comes from, and no matter how close one distillery is situated to another, each whisky is different.
The difference in some cases may be small, but it exists nevertheless. - It is interesting to note that some years ago the EEC tried to make a ruling that all the water used for production purposes should be standardised. If this had not been vigorously opposed by the industry,
there would have been a very real threat to the malt distillers in particular that there might not have been much, if  any difference between whiskies produced from different distilleries within the same producing region. That could have had a potentially catastrophic effect on whole communities, if distilleries had had to be closed down due to nearly all malts from a particular region being the same; thankfully this did not happen. -
Given that it is a natural product, it is vital that the water supply is also natural and unadulterated as this contributes greatly to the spirit and it’s character.