The term “Monkey Shoulder”refers to the stooped shoulders of the men who used to turn the malt by hand with large shovels. The Whiskey name tips a hat to those old, hearty blokes.

Monkey Shoulder is owned by William Grant and Sons and it seems that they own a little piece of everything in the Highlands. Monkey Shoulder is a stand-alone product, which brings us to the special magic of the Whiskey itself.

Its no secret that large Spirit companies segment their products. They run their individual distilleries and package the premium Single Malts as independent brands. All of the “non-premium” product is shuffled off to blending houses for entry-level use. But what happens when you have some of your best, most highly-prized Single Malts producing a lot of the really good stuff stuff too good for the bottom shelf and discount bins? MONKEY SHOULDER!

Monkey Shoulder is officially a“Triple Malt.”This means that it is NOT a random amalgamation of whatever is on hand. This is a special blend of the premium Whiskies from ONLY Glenfiddich, Balvenie, and the Kininvie distilleries. It other words, it is a blend of three winners a Speyside Trifecta of consistent Highland awesomeness. WAY too good to think of as a anything less than the premium quality product that it most certainly is.