1/Age is the biggest slice of what sets a whisky's price, and for Bunnahabhain 12 it makes up 46% of the going rate. Price its age, strength, name and style like the rest of the range at Dan Murphy's and you reach $129. This week it's $99 for members, about 23% under.
2/That $129 comes in parts. Age carries 46% of it, strength the next 27%, the sherry and dried fruit 16%, and being a single malt the last 11%. Four features, priced the way the range prices them, and together they set the rate.
3/What that price can't see is the smoke and the sea. The nose brings sea salt and tangerine with a light smokiness; the palate is oily, salt and drying smoke lingering in the finish. None of the four priced features puts a figure on that, and it's where this one is strongest.
4/For $150 this week, Lagavulin 16 gives a Bunnahabhain 12 drinker about 86% of what the Bunna does; more is not always more. A Bunna pour is $3.87 a standard drink, under a pub pint's $6.28. Peat and tar are the Lagavulin's; fresh salt and light smoke, the Bunna's, at $99.
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