As I’m not the biggest drinker of blended malts in the world, I’ve only really had a select few and out of them I only like half a handful. To cut a long story short, I thought it was about time I added another expression to my list of blends that have had the pleasure of ending up in my belly. As I didn’t really have one in mind when I hit the shops I picked up the first one to tickle my fancy, which just so happened to be Cutty Sark.
Monkey Shoulder is a blend of 3 Speyside whiskies; Kininvie, Balvenie and Glenfiddich, all of which are owned by William Grant & Sons, as is Monkey Shoulder. If I were to guess based on the marketing of the product (have a look at its website, for example) it would seem to be an attempt to reach a younger audience than is usual for a single malt. The bottle has a nice, almost American, design which ought to go down with most age groups though – I, for one, like it.
I was recently fortunate enough to be contacted by the good folk over at Bushmills, offering me a free bottle of their original expression. I figured that the least I could do in return would be to write a wee review of what I consider to be Ireland’s version of Whyte & Mackay (a favourite Scottish blend of mine) – in the sense that they both produce fairly priced, good quality blends.
The way I’ve decided to go about this is a bit different to my other reviews. In a letter that came with the bottle it was suggested that I try the whiskey with “cola, lemonade and even ginger beer”, and so I shall! I thought it might make for an interesting change to first try the whiskey neat and then move on to mixers and see if it truly works, or if it is merely an attempt to sell the whiskey to a broader (Jack Daniel’s type) audience.
Johnnie Walker is a firm favourite of many novice and intermediate whisky drinkers alike – though I haven’t come across many whisky enthusiasts who hold it as a favourite. Personally, I find it to be a perfectly good every day whisky and one which I’ve had on more than one occasion. In the same price category, though, I generally prefer the Whyte & Mackay 13 year old.
This will be one of the shortest reviews you are going to see on my wee blog, in the sense that not a lot will be said about the whisky. The only reason for my writing it in the first place is that I was in Waitrose earlier today, browsing their wine section (I picked up a bottle of Font de Michelle Châteauneuf for £20 – not bad!), when I overheard two younger gentlemen discussing which blended whisky to buy. The choice, it became clear, was between Bell’s and Whyte & Mackay.
The history of this Scottish institution, which just so happens to produce one (and own the distillery of another; Dalmore) of my favourite whiskies, is rather turbulent. The companies roots lie in warehousing, which was its main concern for as long as it went under the name of Allan & Poynter (1843-1882) until it was purchased by Charles Mackay & James Whyte. When they purchased the business, and changed its name, the main source of income came from storing and distributing spirits, primarily whisky. Thus, they decided to start blending, and so Whyte & Mackay whisky came to be.
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