What Tomintoul 25 costs, and what sits close

There is, and it comes from the same still. Tomintoul 21, at $369, gives a Tomintoul 25 drinker about 92% of what the 25 does. Same house, four fewer years, roughly half the money. That's the spine of the whole thing, so start there.

First, what's in the glass. The Tomintoul 25 noses peaches and malt, honey and vanilla, with floral notes that come up as it sits. It's full-bodied in the mouth: ripe apples, cocoa, milky coffee, more honey and vanilla, soft spices underneath. The finish runs fairly long and mellow, turning spicy and drying, with plain chocolate at the end. A classic Speyside, and an unhurried one.

Now the ones that stand in for it. The closest, as said, is the Tomintoul 21 at $369: floral fruits up top, sweet barley and old boiled sweeties, then an almondy vanilla finish that goes on and on, and for a Tomintoul 25 drinker it covers about 92% of the ground. Step up in price and you reach the Glenfiddich Grand Cru 23 at $559, matured in American oak with a little sherry and finished in French wine casks, all canned apricots, toasted marshmallows and apple blossom on the nose, pears and caramel and milk chocolate on a fullish palate; it lands at about 73% for the same drinker. And if you want the house style for much less, the Tomintoul 16 at $181 is the other Gentle Dram, fragrant and firmly malty with fruit gum drops and caramel and a soft wood-spice finish, sitting at about 72%. Three different budgets, one family likeness running through them.

A word on what to pay. Tomintoul 25 is $733 at Dan Murphy's this week, and that's about where it usually sells. Think of it as roughly $30.86 a pour at home, across the two dozen or so standard drinks in the bottle. The Tomintoul 21 works out nearer $16.70 a pour, the Grand Cru around $25.30, the 16 about $8.19. Same easy pleasure, quite different running costs.

Here's the part that's easy to miss. Ask the drinkers of the bottles nearest the Tomintoul 25 what they'd pay for it, each starting from what they already pay for their own, and you get a useful read. A Glen Moray 21 drinker would put the Tomintoul 25 at about $224, which is 65% of what their own bottle costs them; they mark it down for the name on the label and for being older than theirs. Turn it around and a Tomintoul 25 drinker rates the Glen Moray 21 at about 68% of their own, marking it down again for the label and this time for being younger than theirs. Across all the nearest bottles the answers spread from $133 to $756. This week's $733 sits inside that spread — within what the drinkers closest to it would pay.

So, who's it for? If the Tomintoul 25 is already your bottle, nothing here replaces it, and $733 is what the slow hour costs this week. If you love the house but not the outlay, the Tomintoul 21 is the obvious pour, nearly all of the 25 at half the money. If you came in from Glen Moray and want something richer, the Grand Cru 23 bends toward apricot, pear and chocolate. And if you're just after an easy, fragrant Speyside for a weeknight, the Tomintoul 16 will do it happily for the price of a good lunch.