Monkey Shoulder (Come Mr Tallyman tally me banana)

I know that many serious (snobbish?) whisky freaks shun Monkey Shoulder, as it's marketed as a cocktail whisky rather than something to be nosed and sipped. That's a little bit unfair - the cocktails might well taste good. Whether or not one prefers the whisky neat or with mixers is purely personal choice. Having said that, I do prefer this one neat - I'm not so sure that adding mixers improves the flavours. Monkey Shoulder is fine as it is. The marketing is pretty impressive though - there is a nifty website with suggested cocktails, a slogan ("Not the original whisky. More original than that."), the distribution is exclusively via certain chic bars and retailers only, and the target market is obviously the casual cachet-loving drinker who prefers Grey Goose martinis to a Brora 30 yo.

Anyway, Monkey Shoulder is a pretty interesting whisky, in provenance if not so much in taste. There's no grain whisky involved; it is a vatting of 3 single malts - Balvenie, Glenfiddich and Kininvie. These are 3 Speyside distilleries owned by William Grant & Sons in Dufftown, Scotland. Balvenie and Glenfiddich are brands which WG & S want to support, and hence are bottled as single malts. Kininvie was set up to provide whisky for blends, and is not bottled as a single malt. WG & S apparently do not allow any casks of Kininvie to be sold without adulterating them with a little Glenfiddich or Balvenie, ensuring that the whisky cannot legally be bottled as a single malt. Nevertheless there are a couple of rare independent bottlings out there that have been sold as 99% Kininvie 1% something else - i.e. whatever you can taste would be the Kininvie. Outside of these rare bottles, Monkey Shoulder would be the only way to taste Kininvie.

My trusty tasting notebook says:

Monkey Shoulder (William Grant & Sons)
Vatted malt - Glenfiddich, Balvenie, Kininvie
Amber gold
40% ABV

Nose: Oak and sherry. Pear beer, plum brandy, oranges and cinnamon. Buttery notes underneath.
Mouthfeel: Medium body. Watery around the edges.
Taste: Tangy at the edges. Slightly salty. Coconut, raspberries, heather honey, bananas. Citrus notes.
Finish: Long. Lemons and oranges. Turns iodine and medicinal at the end.

I'm fairly sure the plum brandy and red fruit flavours are the Kininvie - there's the Glenfiddich pear and malt, the Balvenie orange and cinnamon, and somehow some bananas, which are likely to also come from the Glenfiddich. I think this whisky should go nicely with some fruit, just to reinforce the esters, and that's what I shall try to pair it with.

1. Mandarin oranges.

Given the season (Chinese New Year is on the 7th of February this year), mandarin oranges seemed appropriate. I don't have any Chinese ones available, but these European grown ones taste good and seem worth trying. Sweet and tangy juice, essence of orange and tangerine. They bring out rose and coconut flavours in the Monkey Shoulder. The coconut I've tasted before - seems to be a characteristic of Speysides when paired with sweet fruits - but the rose is extremely interesting. Very unusual in my experience.

2. Bananas.

Well, Monkey Shoulder already has banana in it, but there must be some flavour profiles that are hiding underneath. I used regular Sainsbury bananas - Del Monte, probably. No specialist Malaysian bananas available unfortunately. Everyone knows what a regular banana tastes like, so I'm not going to describe it.

Anyway, the Monkey Shoulder tastes - surprisingly - of salt caramel. Think salted popcorn with toffee on top. Some smoke too, which is a little surprising, since 2 of the 3 component whiskies don't really have that smokey profile when tasted on their own. Could the smoke be the Kininvie? The banana doesn't taste half bad either, with the whisky enhancing all the esters in the fruit.

3. Lychees.

I wasn't planning to use lychees, but the Pretty Lady was keen on some the other day and we couldn't find any. So when I saw some in the supermarket I decided to get them for her, and maybe blog about them as well. They're not as sweet as the kind one gets in Asia - they probably keep all the nice ones for themselves - but they're a lot better than the semi-bitter ones the supermarkets used to carry a few years ago.

The floral fragrance pretty much kills any fruitiness the whiskey has unfortunately. Something spirity and malty emerges, making the whisky taste a lot stronger than it actually is. Surprisingly little smoke. Cardboard and wet stones emerge after a while, and the finish is now quite spicy.

4. Plums.

I used Ruby Nels, which weren't quite ripe. No matter - the whisky imparts a magic marker character to the fruit. The plum now tastes a lot riper than it actually is. Also, cardboard is in evidence, with a lot more smoke now. Maybe plums have more esters than lychees. Bitter - much more bitter than with any of the other 3 fruits. Not a favourite.


I think the banana wins it, with all the pleasant estery banana flavours in the whisky enhanced by the fruit. Rather appropriately, one should enjoy Monkey Shoulder with a monkey's favourite fruit! Somebody turn that into a slogan.