ABV: 40 %
Origin: Speyside
Type: Blended malt
Bottles in collection: 0
Emptied bottles: 0
Impression: 2/5

Tasting notes
Nose: This is sweet and fruity. At first there’s a sweet toffee and honey mix with a fruitiness attached to it. There’s an ethanol note on top and a more gritty note underneath. This creates a nice contrast to the otherwise easy to access characteristics. It comes off as spirity and a bit thin overall though. The fruitiness is fresh pears and a squeeze of lemon. This is a decent nose and it’s extremely accessible. It lacks some sophistication but does the job of a budget whisky quite well.

Mouth: It starts out with a honey sweetness surrounding the palate. There seems to be a hole in the middle of the palate. The fruitiness and the small gritty note sits in the back and the sweetness up front. It comes through as flat and it really lacks power. A generic bitterness builds up in the rear over time. There are some baking spices floating around somewhere within but everything seems to lack purpose. It’s very ethanol heavy and comes off as harsh at this point of the journey.

Finish: The transition is mellow and a slight, and much needed, increase in intensity finally occurs. The toffee note returns in the center and the fruitiness is basically gone except for a small, slightly metallic, lemon note in the back. The oakiness arrives late and it’s a decent oakiness. It’s got a nutty side to it and scoops up the bitterness to create a decent finish once the ethanol notes die down. This is a decent whisky. It comes through as a budget alternative with corners cut but should work well as a mixer or on ice for the non-explorer.

Additional information
Monkey Shoulder is a vatted malt made by William Grant and Sons. It contains malts aged in american ex-bourbon barrels from Kininvie, Balvenie and Glenfiddich. They are vatted together for 3 months before bottling.

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