Blended (Vatted) Malts or Blends

[IainB]

Which do you prefer? We talk a lot about Malt and PPS. I'm just wondering about people's opinion on Blends vs. Vatted Malts.

I suppose I'm talking about Scotch here but from my limited experience I find Vatted malts a little lacking in character - I feel the process seems to cancel out a lot of the individual characteristic of the malts without necessarily adding much instead. Adding some grain seems, to me, to give a little more spiciness. Not all blends of course, some are dreadful, but the the better blends.

Obviously I know very little about blending but even from my own humble experiments at home blending it seems that those where I've added some grain work best.

Any thoughts anyone?