Keep It in the Family

There is, and it's hiding in plain sight in the same range. The bottle most like Tomintoul 21, for less money, comes from the same distillery. Tomintoul 16 is $181, and to a Tomintoul 21 drinker it gives about 89% of what their own bottle does.

Tomintoul 21 is the one in the glass. Sweet floral fruits on the nose to begin with, then it deepens into spice, with sweet barley and old-fashioned boiled sweeties underneath, a touch of aniseed, a note of furniture polish keeping it honest. The palate is smooth and takes its time. The finish is where it earns its keep — long, almondy, vanilla sitting there well after you've swallowed.

The family sits either side of it, and the differences are the whole point.

Tomintoul 25, $733. The oldest of the three, and it shows: peaches, honey and vanilla on the nose, ripe apples and milky coffee on a full body, then plain chocolate in a mellow, drying finish. To a Tomintoul 21 drinker it gives about 92% of what the 21 does, for 199% of its price.

Tomintoul 16, $181. The label calls it the Gentle Dram and that's about right — fragrant, a firm malty base, fruit gum drops and caramel, with almond and anise and a soft wood-spice finish that keeps you coming back. Easy to drink without being simple. To a Tomintoul 21 drinker it gives about 89% of what the 21 does, for 49% of its price. Poured at home it works out to about $8.19 a dram, against $16.70 for the 21.

So, what to pay. Tomintoul 21 is $369 at Dan Murphy's this week. That's about what it usually sells for, around $369, and that's where it has been sitting.

There's another way to look at it. Take the drinkers of the bottles nearest the 21, and ask each what they'd pay for it, starting from what they already pay for their own. The nearest is the 16. A Tomintoul 16 drinker would pay about $162 for the 21, roughly 89% of what their own bottle costs them, marking it down for being older than theirs and for its sherry and dried fruit. Turn it around and a Tomintoul 21 drinker puts the 16 at 89% of their own, marking it down for being younger. Across all the drinkers of the bottles nearest the 21, the answers run from $106 to $717. At $369, this week's price sits comfortably inside that span.

Who's it for, then? If the 21 is already your bottle, $369 is the number this week, and you know what you're getting — that long almond-and-vanilla finish is the reason you keep it up top. If you like the 21 but don't want to save it for best, the 16 is the same house at under half the price, gentler but unmistakably related. And if the 21 is the one you reach past on your way to something older, the 25 is waiting, with the peaches and chocolate that only the extra years bring.

Same family, three ways in. Pick the one that suits the night.