Head to head · unusually close flavour match
Compass Box Artist Blend vs Monkey Shoulder
No flavour axis separates them. Compass Box Artist Blend publishes its cask types, Monkey Shoulder publishes none.
Compiled by WhiskeyCask Editorial · Last verified 2026-07-30
Specifications side by side
| Compass Box Artist Blend | Monkey Shoulder | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Blended scotch | Blended malt |
| Origin | Scotland | Speyside, Scotland |
| Age | No age statement | No age statement |
| Strength | 43% ABV | 43% ABV |
| Cask | First-fill ex-bourbon barrel, custom medium-toast French oak, re-vatted Palo Cortado sherry-seasoned butt | Not disclosed |
| Bottle | 700 ml | 700 ml |
| RRP observed | £37 | £30 |
| Per 10cl | £5.29 | £4.29 |
| Per litre of alcohol | £123 | £100 |
| Chill-filtered | No | Not stated |
What separates them
Both from Scotland.
Compass Box Artist Blend is a blended scotch, Monkey Shoulder a blended malt.
Neither carries an age statement, so neither discloses its youngest spirit.
Compass Box Artist Blend lists first-fill ex-bourbon barrel, custom medium-toast french oak and re-vatted palo cortado sherry-seasoned butt. Monkey Shoulder publishes no cask detail at all.
Chill filtration: Compass Box Artist Blend is not, Monkey Shoulder does not say.
Colour: Compass Box Artist Blend natural colour, Monkey Shoulder silent.
What the price buys
Compass Box Artist Blend is £7.00 dearer a bottle than Monkey Shoulder.
Strength keeps that ordering: £100 a litre of pure alcohol for Monkey Shoulder against £123.
Across the 32 bottles we can cost this way, Compass Box Artist Blend is 10th cheapest and Monkey Shoulder 4th cheapest.
Flavour, compared
View as table
| Axis | Compass Box Artist Blend | Monkey Shoulder |
|---|---|---|
| Peaty | 2 | 1 |
| Sweet | 6 | 7 |
| Fruity | 7 | 6 |
| Spicy | 5 | 5 |
| Woody | 5 | 4 |
| Sherried | 4 | 3 |
| Cereal | 6 | 6 |
| Oily | 6 | 6 |
No axis reaches the 3-point gap we call meaningful. Widest is peaty, 2 against 1.
Identical on spicy, cereal and oily.
Each bottle in its own right
Compass Box Artist Blend
Bright orchard fruit and cream with a dry, spiced finish. Proof that a blend can be interesting.
Compass Box publishes the complete recipe by percentage, which no large blender does: 45% Cameronbridge grain, 22% Linkwood, 10% Clynelish, 10% Balmenach, 8% a Highland malt blend in custom French oak, 5% Linkwood in a Palo Cortado butt. Component ages are the one thing conspicuously absent. Formerly sold as Great King Street Artist's Blend.
Full record →Monkey Shoulder
Vanilla, orange and malt, built to survive ice and ginger ale. An honest cocktail malt.
William Grant & Sons does not name the three constituent malts anywhere on its own site — the widely repeated Glenfiddich, Balvenie and Kininvie attribution is unofficial. The 43% we list is the producer's US figure; no UK strength is published at all.
Full record →No overlap in what we list them for: Compass Box Artist Blend for value at 43%, transparency and first blended scotch, Monkey Shoulder for cocktails, highball and value.
Where these specifications come from
Producer and retailer pages for Compass Box Artist Blend and Monkey Shoulder: compassboxwhisky.com, cdn.shopify.com, monkeyshoulder.com. Figures are what those pages published when we last checked them, on 2026-07-30.