Monkey Shoulder NAS
Distillery: Monkey ShoulderStyle: Vatted Malt
Release: Unspecified
Age: Unspecified
Alcohol: 40% abv.
Region: Scotland, Speyside
Bottled For: Distillery
Vatted malt of Glenfiddich, Balvenie and Kininvie. Big marketing initiative, billed as a "triple malt", and "not the original, more original than that". One of the few ways to taste identifiable Kininvie though, as it's not bottled as a single malt.
Reviews 1 - 1 of 1
Review by: Red Hare
Color: Amber gold
Nose: Oak and sherry. Pear beer and plum brandy. Oranges and cinnamon. Buttery toffee and chocolaty notes.
Body: Medium body. A little watery around the edges.
Palate: Very tangy, but at the edges only. Coconut and heather honey. Faint hint of raspberry. Citrusy. Plum, orange and pear, but it takes some tasting to find them.
Finish: Long finish. Lemons and oranges. Becomes iodine and medicinal at the end, very antiseptic.
Color: Amber gold
Nose: Oak and sherry. Pear beer and plum brandy. Oranges and cinnamon. Buttery toffee and chocolaty notes.
Body: Medium body. A little watery around the edges.
Palate: Very tangy, but at the edges only. Coconut and heather honey. Faint hint of raspberry. Citrusy. Plum, orange and pear, but it takes some tasting to find them.
Finish: Long finish. Lemons and oranges. Becomes iodine and medicinal at the end, very antiseptic.
The joy's mostly in the nose with this one. I can discern some plum and honey that is likely to be the Kininvie. Balvenie and Glenfiddich quite obvious in the nose. I originally scored this whisky quite low, around 65. However, as the bottle wore on, I found hidden depths - the vatting gives some complexity to the fruit flavours, reinforcing them. There's definitely more subtle undertones lurking underneath that reward some introspection.