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And savvy collectors are tuning in to the tastes you can’t get anywhere else.

Illustration by Ian Grandjean for Bloomberg Businessweek

Hello savvy drinkers, Brad Japhe here to dig into a controversial topic: American whiskey blends.

Whisky makers in the British Isles tend to view blending as an art; there’s a reason Johnnie Walker has kept on walking for more than 200 years. But in the US, blended whiskey is synonymous with flavorless, super-high-proof filler known as grain neutral alcohol. Popular American blended whiskeys such as Seagram’s 7 Crown and Kentucky Gentleman legally can be loaded with as much as 80% of it, which is why they’re often derided as “whiskey-flavored vodka.”