Whisky Producer Profile - Monkey Shoulder
Aggregate Producer Rating?
0.0
(12.4 pctl)
$2.81 / pctl
Monkey Shoulder
| Est. 2005
Part of the William Grant and Sons family of brands.
Overall, Monkey Shoulder is known for:
Producer Overview
The three malt components that form Monkey Shoulder's smooth, malty and fruity character were once derived from William Grant's three Speyside distilleries: Balvenie, Glenfiddich and Kininvie. Nowadays the recipe is a closely guarded secret, featuring an undisclosed combination of 'different' Speyside single malts. The long process of turning barley by hand inevitably took its toll on Scotland's malt men. After long shifts of constant manual flipping they were susceptible to a condition which caused one arm to hang down just a little; they called this "monkey shoulder". While the unfortunate side effect is now an ailment of the past thanks to the modernisation of production techniques and widespread dissolution of distillery maltings, Monkey Shoulder is very much in the here and now in the form of a William Grant-owned blended malt. Monkey Shoulder's history begins with a certain William Grant who put his entire life savings of £755 into the construction of Glenfiddich distillery in 1886. Five years later Balvenie was opened on the same site as Glenfiddich, and almost a century later they were joined by Kininvie in 1990. As Scotch whisky began an upward trend in the early 2000s, William Grant & Sons combined malt whisky from the three distilleries to create a new blended malt- one of very few on the market at the time. Launched in 2005, Monkey Shoulder filled a gap in the category for a fun-yet-premium brand that resonated with both consumers and bartenders alike. In recent years the group has run on-trade cocktail competition the Ultimate Bartender Challenge, which encourages entrants to dream up wacky and innovative bar projects.
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