Tonight's whisky is Monkey Shoulder, which will be my first 'blended' Scotch review. For a refresher, a blend combines whisky from multiple distilleries. This differs from a 'single malt' which only comes from one. This bottle is labeled 'blended malt Scotch whisky' which means it's still 100% made in Scotland and uses 100% malted barley in the mash.
For most of the history of Scotch, blends were vastly preferred and more commonly consumed, partially because people knew the brands of the blenders better than the distilleries. More recently, single malts are the hot ticket and whisky producers can sell them for higher prices. People now often perceive blends as less prestigious, often unfairly so. There are certainly good ones, providing a quality whisky for a lower price. (Definitely note that blends aren't always cheap. The almost mythical Johnnie Walker Blue is $200 or more.) Blend prices are also relatively helped with recent tariffs only targeting single malts.
The reason I actually bought this bottle was for my starting point whiskey recommendations, filling a role and open hole in my selected whiskies for an affordable and (non-peaty) approachable Scotch, which would have to be a blend. This one stuck out because it's quite popular and easy to find, it's light and not smoky, and it has a very reasonable price point. I hadn't tried it myself for a few years (usually finding non-sherried Speysiders boring) and wanted to make sure I liked it before recommending. Apparently I'm gaining appreciation.
A lot of times the whiskies (and ratios) going into a blend are unknown, a blender's secret you could say. With Johnnie Walker, we know only that all of its spirit comes from the various Diageo distilleries. Independent blenders are total wild cards. Monkey Shoulder surprises because we know its exact sources. It's producer, William Grant & Sons (the largest family-owned Scotch whisky maker), owns three Speyside distilleries: Balvenie, Glenfiddich and Kininvie and the bottle says it comes from 'three fine Speyside distilleries.' That statement has appeared on the label since the 2005 brand launch. In the future it sounds like they're no longer committing to the current official provenance, but that doesn't impact the bottle I have today.
The name is not as random as you'd think. Producing malt whiskey requires malted barley and this predominantly used to be done on-site at the distilleries. Men would manually have to turn barley on the malting floor and long hours made them susceptible to a condition called 'Monkey Shoulder.' Modern production methods have made this a thing of the past. Instead a tidbit of Scotch history provided an excuse for a cute monkey logo.
Facts:
ABV - 43% (86 proof)
Maturation - Unknown, but likely exclusively ex-bourbon oak
Age - Unknown, at least three years
Region - Speyside
Ideal price - $30-35
Here's Master of Malt.
My tasting notes:
Smell - Lots of citrus, lemon/orange, cream, vanilla, bit of alcohol but fairly refined
Color - Amber, pretty light (artificial?)
Taste - Oats and honey, various fruit, malt and wood
Finish - Creamy feel, smooth, finally a bit of lingering spice on back of the tongue
Here we have a high caliber example of a Speyside whisky. It's light, delicate, creamy, fruity, got a bit of spice from the wood, and no peat smoke whatsoever. Really a classic profile for Scotch. This is one of the gems I referred to earlier, being both good enough to drink neat and cheap enough to use in cocktails if you choose. A do-everything whisky that's easily enjoyed. For now it'll be my go-to blend and I highly recommend it. Cheers!
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