Let’s keep this supermarket shelf whisky theme going with another stable from those high volume shelves.
The Malt Blend
The Monkey Shoulder blend of single malts has been around since 2005 and is produced by William Grant. The recipe originally included only three distilleries in Glenfiddich, Balvenie and Kininvie. All of which is matured in ex-bourbon barrels and bottled at 40% ABV. You can expect to pay in the mid to high 20’s for a bottle and perhaps you might even see a marketing promotional bottle every now and again.
All three of these distilleries have pressure on their stocks from a number of sources and so the official listing of the distilleries in the batches is no longer published making it possible to use stocks from anywhere in the Grant portfolio.
Tasting Notes
Colour – orange
Nose – fresh and light with a lot of sweet vanilla ice-cream, apple pies and cinnamon buns.
Palate – a light texture with caramel chew sweeties and barley sugars
Finish – a drying and bitter wood spice finish
Final Thoughts
A simple and nice expression which hits the spot on a summer’s day. I know a lot of people look their nose up at this and I am not sure why. The DNA of Glenfiddich and Balvenie in integral to the flavours for me and we know how popular of malts are on their own.
There is a smoky version out there which I have yet to try or even see. Originally only available to bars and restaurants it appears to have gone onto retailers now. Available on Master of Malt for just under £30 it is perhaps worth a gamble.
Malted 