Single Malt Scotch is whisky made in Scotland using a pot still distillation process at a single distillery, with malted barley as the only grain ingredient. As with any Scotch whisky, a Single Malt Scotch must be distilled in Scotland and matured in oak casks in Scotland for at least three years (most single malts are matured longer).

- "Malt" indicates that the whisky is distilled from a single "malted" grain. Several types of grains can be malted (for example, barley, rye and wheat are all grains which can be malted); however, in the case of single malt Scotch, barley is always the (only) grain used.
- "Single" indicates that all the malts in the bottle come from a single distillery. Multi-distillery malts are usually called "blended malt", "vatted malt" or "pure malt".