The Malt That Suits the Room

There is a reason it lands like that. Of all the bottles we look at, The Glenlivet 12 sits in the top 19% for how broadly it's liked, which is a plain way of saying it finds favour with more kinds of drinker than most malts manage.

The whisky itself has always leaned towards lightness, and a better wood policy has given that lightness something to stand on. You get lily, orchid and pineapple up top, flighty flavours that might drift off on their own, except a thick creaminess beds them down underneath. Add a little water and mandarin and rose petal come through, with a flick of white pepper behind them. It is a lovely, unhurried dram.

If you want to look sideways, a few sit close. Glen Moray 12, which usually sells around $75, is all honey, icing sugar, toffee bonbons and orange peel on the nose, then barley sugar, soft oak, nectarine and lychee on the palate; to a The Glenlivet 12 drinker it gives about 100% of what the Glenlivet does, for 90% of the price. The Deveron 12, usually around $91, runs softer and spicier, with vanilla, ginger, ripe peaches and apple blossom giving way to butterscotch, Brazil nuts and a hint of liquorice; it gives a The Glenlivet 12 drinker about 99% of what the Glenlivet does. Aberfeldy 12, usually around $104, takes the floral, tropical route, with honey, vanilla and an orange marmalade finish; to a The Glenlivet 12 drinker it gives about 99% of what the Glenlivet does, for 132% of its price.

As for the Glenlivet, it's $79 at Dan Murphy's this week. From what we've seen it usually sells around $79, somewhere between $74 and $80, so this week sits right on its mark. Worked out as a pour at home that comes to about $3.56 a standard drink, against roughly $6.28 for the same measure of a $13 pint at the pub.

Here is the part worth sitting with. Ask the drinkers of the bottles nearest it what The Glenlivet 12 is worth, each starting from what they happily pay for their own, and the answers run from $68 to $94. The ones who share its honeyed, floral turn put it at nine-tenths or more of their own bottle. At $79 this week it sits inside that range, nearer the middle than either end.

So who is it for. If The Glenlivet 12 is already your bottle, nothing here should move you off it; $79 is the asking price this week, and it is sitting where it usually does. If you would rather keep a little back in your pocket and lose next to nothing in the glass, Glen Moray 12 is the one to reach for. If peaches and a bit of warm spice are what you're after, The Deveron 12 goes that way. And if you lean towards the tropical, marmalade end, Aberfeldy 12 is waiting, for a good deal more. Any of the four will pour well for a table that hasn't agreed on anything else.