Drinking and math have always been strange bedfellows — it’s one reason bartenders won’t let you keep your own tab — but here’s a simple enough barstool equation: If there are fewer than 100 malt whiskey distilleries in Scotland, how many kinds of single malt scotch can possibly be made in any given year?

Fewer than 100.

The fact that there’s a limited quantity of the stuff can be disheartening to connoisseurs and collectors. Fine wines can be made by combining the grapes from multiple vineyards, making the number of possible wines that can be created somewhere close to infinite. But single malts, by definition, can only be from one source.

Over the last few years, however, professional blenders have taken great strides in exploring the possibilities inherent in combining single malts in much the same way grapes are combined to create so many varieties of wine.

To be sure, about 90% percent of Scotch whiskeys imported to America have long been blends, such as Chivas Regal or Johnnie Walker Black Label. But they are not blends of two or more single malts — they are blends of grain whiskeys (made from corn or wheat in a continuous still) and single malts (made from malted barley in a pot still). A growing number of companies, however, are taking grain whiskey out of the equation and are introducing what the industry’s governing body, the Scotch Whisky Association, calls “blended malts.” These blends are mixtures of single malts from multiple distilleries. Typically edgier and less subtle than a grain/malted barley blend (and usually more consistent year to year than any given single malt), blended malts are currently receiving the kind of critical acclaim that would have once been hard to imagine for a scotch that had the word “blend” on its label.

“People are predisposed to think that any kind of blend is ‘the cheap stuff,'” said John Glaser, founder of Compass Box, one of the companies spearheading the trend. “They think that it’s low quality, and that single malts are best.” His company has won Whisky magazine’s “Innovator of the Year” award four times since he launched it in 2001. Compass Box products sell in America for about $45 — roughly the same price as many single malts, including Glenmorangie Ten Years Old or The Macallan Twelve Years Old.

But the term “blend” makes some people pass over his offerings all together. That’s why Mr. Glaser prefers to forgo the word altogether by calling the product “malt scotch whiskey,” although this is not a term that’s currently recognized by the SWA. The SWA also does not condone the use of other similar terms that Mr. Glaser and his ilk prefer, including “vatted malt” or “pure malt,” older ways to refer to this kind of mixing.

While distillers have been combining single malts for more than a century, the technique has only recently been “reinvigorated,” according to the public affairs manager of the SWA, David Williamson. He attributes the growth to an overall improving market for single malts. The value of shipments of whiskey from Scotland to America has more than doubled in the last decade. “Now you’re seeing the industry trying to expand on that and looking at different ways to bring new kinds of malts to the consumer. With blended malts, there’s the opportunity to create new products that might appeal to a broader range of consumers.”

One of the most heralded blended malts of the moment is Compass Box’s Peat Monster, which won the gold medal at the 2004 International Wine & Spirit Competition. It’s made from three whiskeys, mostly a peaty and smoky single malt and a more rich, malty one. “It’s a reaction to the very peaty single malts on the market,” Mr. Glaser said. “A lot of them are intense and one dimensionally peaty — like licking the bottom of an ashtray. I wanted to make something more drinkable.” (The company also has made limited edition single grain scotch and blended scotch).

Some blended malts, such as Compass Box ‘s Oak Cross, a medium-weight blend, and the four offerings in the Pride of the Regions line from Gordon and MacPhail, approach the art of mixing by using the products of distilleries in one geographic area for each bottle. Both are available at Astor Wines & Spirits in New York.

Other blended malts of note include ones by Jon, Mark, and Robbo (available at Park Avenue Liquor), which have descriptive names such as “The Rich Spicy One” and “The Smooth Sweeter One.” There’s also the Johnny Walker Green Label, created from 15 different single malts, which has only been available in America for three years and is still undiscovered by many Johnny Walker fans.

According to Mr. Glaser, a blended malt drinker (a.k.a. a vatted malt or pure malt or malt scotch drinker) is a smart drinker — and not just because he first has to figure out what the stuff is called. “If you’re drinking it, you’ve figured out there’s no reason to be tied to the output of just one distillery,” Mr. Glaser said. “And if you’re making it? You’ve found a platform for creativity.”