Eagle Rare 10, a big bourbon that reads older than its label

Start with the whisky itself. The label says ten years, but it drinks like something well into its teens, a big bourbon with plenty of oak behind it. Maple and toffee open sweet and are quickly overtaken by firm mint and dried fruit, which in turn yields to polished leather, roasted nuts and dry, resinous oak, before a long, spicy finish of cinnamon and mint. If maple, mint and oak are the three words you want from a bourbon, this one is built squarely for you.

At Dan Murphy's this week it's $90 for members. It usually sells around $99, and across what we've seen it has run from $85 to $104, so this week sits at the gentler end of its own range. Worked out by the pour, that's about $3.62 a standard drink, with roughly 25 of them in the bottle, a little under the $6.28 a standard drink of a $13 pint at the pub if you like to measure a dram at home against a night out.

So what would the drinkers of the bottles nearest Eagle Rare 10 pay for it, each starting from what they pay for their own? A 1792 Small Batch drinker would put it at about $74, which is 89% of what their own bottle costs them, marking it down for its sherry and dried fruit and for being older than theirs. Turn it around, and an Eagle Rare 10 drinker values 1792 Small Batch at about 93% of their own, marking that one down for the same sherry and dried fruit and for being younger. Across the bottles nearest it, those answers run from $74 to $78, and this week's $90 for members sits above all of them: priced for its fans.

If you fancy a change, two neighbours stand close. Old Virginia 12, $81 this week and usually around $79, is the gentler, rounder pour, all vanilla, caramel and dried fruit with a little oak spice, and to an Eagle Rare 10 drinker it gives about 95% of what their own bottle does; from there you could step across to 1792 Small Batch, $83 for members against a usual $86, a nut-led whisky of toasted walnut and warm spice that lands at about 93% of the Eagle Rare 10 for the drinker who knows it. Either one covers most of the same ground.

So, a yes for each of you. If Eagle Rare 10 is already your bottle, $90 for members is what it costs this week, and it reads older and oakier than its ten years suggest, which is the whole appeal. If you drink 1792 Small Batch, you've weighed Eagle Rare 10 at about $74 and your own bottle holds its place, so stay where you are. And if you're after the bold, oaky style but would rather not stretch to $90, Old Virginia 12 at $81 gets you most of the way there.