02vettez06
Monkey Shoulder Blended Malt
Blended Malt — Speyside, Scotland
Reviewed
November 2, 2019 (edited December 1, 2019)
Apparently William Grant & Sons has recently changed the formula for Monkey Shoulder. The bottle I bought earlier this year was bottled at 43% ABV and blended from three different distilleries (Balvenie, Glenfiddich and Kininvie). The new formula is bottled at 40% and is blended from an "undisclosed combination" of Speyside malts. This review is for the original blend, if you want to try it look for bottles labeled 43% ABV.
The nose is light with butterscotch, vanilla, and honey. I hate using wood to describe scotch as all scotch gets 80%+ of its flavor from wood casks, but the palate is dominated by a light wood flavor, like reed. Beeswax, walnuts, and a little pepper linger for a bit before slowly fading away with an oily finish.
This is a decent blended malt for the price, but I can't imagine the new lower ABV blend is an improvement. Luckily, there are numerous Speyside single malts available in the same price range which I would recommend over this.
30.0
USD
per
Bottle
Create Account
or
Sign in
to comment on this review
Nice review. I like this blend but not sure about new formula, may have to pass now