If Glengoyne 21 is your bottle, the closest thing to it for less money hasn't travelled far. It's the Glengoyne 18, $276, and to a Glengoyne 21 drinker it gives about 96% of what the 21 itself does. Same distillery, a few years younger, most of the character for about three-quarters of the outlay.
Start with the 21. Younger Glengoyne can be fairly straightforward; this one has had the time to deepen. Underneath it all sits the creamy maltiness the distillery is built on, and around that honey, cookie dough, a dry dusting of vanilla and cinnamon, and soft fruit — citrus and apple. Clean, polished, the sort of dram you keep coming back to.
As for what to pay: Glengoyne 21 is $361 at Dan Murphy's this week, and it usually sells around $361, so this week is the going rate.
Now the part people ask about. What would the drinkers of the bottles nearest the 21 pay for it, each starting from what they already hand over for their own? Their answers run from $115 to $362. The Glenfarclas 25 drinker sits right at the top: about $362, which is 82% of what their own bottle costs them, marked down only a touch, and only for the 21 being younger than theirs. Turn it the other way and a Glengoyne 21 drinker puts the Glenfarclas 25 at about 85% of their own, marking it down for not being from the Highlands and for being older than theirs. At $361, the 21 sits inside what the drinkers of the bottles nearest it would pay.
If you fancy a change, three bottles will do the job, and they walk down in price as you go. The Glengoyne 18, usually around $276, carries sherry, milk chocolate, vanilla and melon on the nose, with cinnamon, almonds and orange marmalade following through; to a 21 drinker it's worth about 96% of the 21 for 76% of its price — roughly $11.62 a standard drink against the 21's $15.20. Step across the glen to the Glenfiddich 18, usually around $175, all oak, fresh apple, barley and cereal with a sweet fruitcake warmth, and you still get about 91% of the 21 at half its price. Or stay in the family with the Glengoyne 15, $162 this week, sherry-led with vanilla, ginger, toffee and a spicy, cocoa-dusted finish, about 86% of the 21 for a little under half.
So who's it for? If the 21 is already your pour, nothing here asks you to leave it — $361 is what it costs this week, and the depth that comes with the years is the reason you drink it. If you'd happily take most of that depth for less, the 18 is the one to reach for first; it's the nearest thing to it and the easiest step down. If you want the Glengoyne signature at close to half the money, the 15 is waiting, younger and a shade livelier but unmistakably from the same place. And if you don't mind wandering out of the Highlands, the Glenfiddich 18 holds its own, smooth and Christmas-cake sweet, for the gentlest spend of the lot. Whichever drinker you are, there's a yes in here.
None recorded.
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