DrRHCMadden
Monkey Shoulder Blended Malt
Blended Malt — Speyside, Scotland
Reviewed
July 22, 2022 (edited August 8, 2022)
Ahhh, the purpose of the mass production machine of Glenfiddich, to go into the underpriced (hooray) magic that is Monkey Shoulder. Three Speyside liquids go into this blend: Glenfiddich, Balvenie, and Kinivie, and dare I say it, I suspect what ever the parts are that go in, the sum is probably greater.
N: Malt, vanilla and toffee, some more vanilla, bakery spices (nutmeg, cinnamon). Crisp citrus freshness. I love this nose, in one hyphenated word, malty-funk.
P: malt malt malt (so good), buttery fullness, honey, soft woody notes, vanilla, i think banana (maybe like those dried/fried banana chips). Theres a crunchy burnt brown sugar, like a creme brûlée. Its a sweetness that just balances off the malty cereal tones.
F: medium. Cinnamon warmth, a little oaky, and maybe something fresh like peppermint or menthol.
I just got through writing down my thoughts on both OP12 and Glenfiddich 12. Those thoughts, in short were: I’d rather be drinking Monkey Shoulder. Admittedly I am sat here still drinking Glenfiddich of sorts, but the brilliance lies in the blend here. Three malts, three monkeys, one winner. If egg custard tarts were a liquid I think this would be it. And I for one think egg custard tarts are delicious, ergo, monkeys shoulder is delicious. At
57.0
AUD
per
Bottle
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@Ctrexman I’ll keep an eye out. It baffles me that such good liquid can be so cheap. Almost like other liquids are overhyped and priced!
@cascode I don’t get the whisky laws sometimes. There are so many things that need to be stated for age statements and vattings and protected regional status. But, blends seem to be able to almost hide behind a vail of anonymity….
Truly one of the best budget malts. If you can find in your area Balcones Lineage is great too
As far as I’m aware (and I may be wrong) the label on Monkey Shoulder has only ever said that it contains three of the finest Speyside whiskies (or something like that). However the meaning of that is open to interpretation. William Grant & Sons only own three Speyside distilleries (Glenfiddich, Balvenie and Kininvie) so it was an open secret back when it launched (in 2006 I think) that those were the component malts. Then a few years ago (more than two certainly) they became coy about the formula and it is believed they now use whisky from at least one other Speyside distillery. As the wording does not say it contains ONLY three Speyside whiskies it may even be a more complex vatting than we think.
@angstrom have they? Hmm, that’s a @cascode question I feel. To be honest, I’m not sure I’ve recognised a noticeable difference in the last two years when I first started drinking this. It could be then that I am only aware of the new batch?
Nice review! This was one of my $30 favorites. But haven’t they changed the recipe? Including now using sourced whisky outside the original 3?