I have done a fair amount of vatting of whiskies. Usually to achieve a certain taste at which I aim (sometimes works, sometimes not). Recently, Gary Gillman (Vatman) suggested combining two good whiskies to achieve something better than either of them individually. He suggested 3 parts Larceny to 1 part Devil's Cut. I made this vatting and liked it so much that I took all the remaining Larceny and vatted it with 1/3 the amount of Devil's Cut.
Exactly where this idea of Gary's came from (a lot of experience, perhaps?), I am not sure, but it worked well. So what I aimed at in the vatting I have just done, was not something better than either of the constituents (both are first rate whiskies), but something different, and hopefully as good as the individual constituents.
I took 25 ml of Four Roses Single Barrel (100 proof) and 25 ml of Jack Daniel's Holiday Select 2011 (100 proof) and 5 ml of filtered water and vatted them. The result is 91 proof and is a quite sweet, quite spicy, whiskey that is pretty delicate. I could be fooled into thinking it has a goodly portion of malt, such is its sweetness nicely 'rounded'.
The upfront rich sweetness is completely separate from the spicy mid-palate, and they hold hands as they take a bow and leave the stage, only to come back in an encore.
The two constituents of this vatting are both superb whiskies in their own right, and justly celebrated (I think the JD Holiday Select is the same whiskey as JD Silver Select, which is not available in the US under the Silver Select label). But the vatting, as one would hope, takes advantage of the best of both. From the FRSB comes the spice and fruit, from the JD comes the softer sweetness.
Out of curiosity, I cut the proof in this vatting to 80. The sweetness (softer still) and the spice are still persistent, but the richness has diminished to the degree that the loss is significant, and not good. Still, I would put it up against any 80 proof whiskey in the world, and expect it to be judged their equal.