The Blended Scotch Whisky category became commercially viable in the mid to late 19th century, with the passing of the 1860 Spirits Act permitting the previously forbidden mixture of malt and grain whiskies, and subsequent improvements in glass bottle production enabling the new blended Scotch whisky brands to be produced at great scale and to spread their wings to international markets.

The new blended Scotches were both cheaper to produce and easier to drink than single malts, and quickly became hugely popular. The emergence of blended whisky had coincided with misfortune for Scotch's rival spirits - the formerly pre-eminent Cognac was stymied by phylloxera from the 1870s, while Irish whiskey producers stubbornly refused to adopt grain distillation and continued to argue that grain spirits were not whisky well into the 20th century.

The grain whisky producers had moved quickly to form the Distillers Company Limited cartel in the 19th century, and after the disastrous Pattison Crash of 1898 DCL began buying up financially stricken distilleries to secure the supply of malt whisky for their blends. When major blenders including Buchanan-Dewar, White Horse and Johnnie Walker joined the DCL fold in the 1920s the company assumed de facto control of the blended whisky market.

A great deal has changed in the whisky industry since the heyday of blended Scotch. Historical vagaries of fashion, politics, market conditions and multinational corporate culture have resulted in the sad situation where many of the classic blended whisky brands from the first half of the 20th century are now scarce or no longer available in the UK. The rise of single malt whisky has stolen some prestige and status from the blended Scotch whisky category, but blended Scotch remains the world's pre-eminent whisky and is unlikely ever to be surpassed in popularity.