A mate hands you the aisle at Dan Murphy's and says pick something smoky we'll all drink. That's the quiet test, really — not the bottle you love most, but the one the whole table gets on with. Reach for Ledaig 10 and you've answered it.
That's the point here. Of all the bottles sitting near Ledaig 10, it's in the top 7% for how broadly it's liked. Put it in front of a mixed room and most hands go up.
The bottle itself is Tobermory's peated malt, and this 10-year-old is it hitting its stride. Not chill-filtered, so there's a brisk punch of peat and a raw edge that's bracing without being hard work, carried by plenty of soothing sweetness. Earthy peat smoke, ripe barley, honeyed vanilla and bourbon barrel char, then black liquorice, espresso bean, a touch of olive brine and a suggestion of beef jerky. It tastes a shade younger than its ten years, which reads here as character rather than a mark against it.
1/Ledaig 10, $99 for members at Dan Murphy's. Ten years old, 46.3%. A brisk punch of peat, earthy smoke, ripe barley, a touch of honeyed vanilla. For a Port Charlotte 10 drinker it gives about 91% of what that bottle does, at 68% of the price.
2/Port Charlotte 10, $146: butterscotch and a subtle sherry edge, iodine, a smoky, medicinal thread through the finish. What a Port Charlotte 10 drinker gives up with the Ledaig 10 is mostly some strength and the name on the label.
3/The Port Charlotte 10 is still the one for its fans at $146. The Ledaig 10, $99 for members, is the one for every other night. At $3.87 a standard drink against $6.28 for a pint at the pub, it's an easy pour to keep stocked. It usually sells around $104.
If Ledaig 10 is your smoke, Talisker 10 sits right alongside it: a Ledaig 10 drinker gets about 99% of what they came for, at 93% of the price. That's $92 for members, sweet pear and cracked black pepper under the smoke. More on Ledaig 10 in this week's piece.
Ask the drinkers of the bottles nearest Ledaig 10 what it's worth to them. Their answers run $86 to $133, each from what they pay for their own. At $99 for members it sits inside that range, an easy yes for the peat drinker. More on Ledaig 10 in this week's piece.
They're all smoky, each in its own way. Ledaig 10 comes to $3.87 a standard drink — a pour at home, around 26 to the bottle. A pint at the pub runs about $6.28 a standard drink. More on Ledaig 10 in this week's piece.
Earthy peat smoke, honeyed vanilla and a stick of black liquorice, a brisk punch with soothing sweetness beneath. That's Ledaig 10, $99 for members at Dan Murphy's this week. It usually sells around $104, so take this as a gentle guide. More in this week's piece.
Talisker 10: I get a sweet, pear-like note under the smoke on the nose, an easy palate, then a finish with a crack of black pepper. The smoke is there, but it never takes over the whole room. $92 for members at Dan Murphy's this week. More on it in this week's piece.
Ask the drinkers of Talisker 10's nearest bottles what they'd give for it, each starting from what their own costs, and the answers run $90 to $135. At $92 for members, Talisker 10 sits near the bottom of that spread. Where each kind of drinker lands is in this week's piece.
Talisker 10 is $92, about 25 standard drinks in the bottle, so a pour at home runs $3.64 a drink, against about $6.28 a standard drink for a pint at the pub. Pour it when you want cracked pepper and sweet seaweed on a cold night. More in this week's piece. Which way tonight?
Ledaig 10, Tobermory's peated one, $99 for members at Dan Murphy's. Earthy peat smoke on the nose, then ripe barley, honeyed vanilla and bourbon char, a black liquorice stick, a brush of olive brine before the sweetness soothes. Pour one and see, more in this week's piece.
Hand a Port Charlotte 10 drinker a Ledaig 10 and they'd pay 85% of what their own bottle runs, knocking a little off for Tobermory rather than Islay. Same peat, same brine. Would you pour it? More in this week's piece on Ledaig 10.
Ledaig 10 works out to $3.87 a standard drink, the cost of a pour at home, where a pint at the pub sits closer to $6.28 for each of its roughly two. Something to turn over on a quiet night, isn't it? More on Ledaig 10 in this week's piece.
Ledaig 10 is $99 for members at Dan Murphy's this week, where it usually sells around $109. Earthy peat smoke, ripe barley and honeyed vanilla on the nose, bracing at the edges with a soothing sweetness underneath. Tempted? The full read on Ledaig 10 is in this week's piece.
Poured the Talisker 10 beside the Ledaig 10 this week and kept drifting back to it. $92 for members at Dan Murphy's, ten years, 45.8%: sweet pear under the smoke, sweet seaweed, a cracked pepper finish. For a Ledaig drinker, 99% of what the Ledaig gives, for 82% of the price.
The biggest thing you pay for in Talisker 10 is its age: 35% of the going rate. Then strength at 26%, the name on the label 25%, being a single malt 14%. Price those features the way Dan Murphy's prices everything else, and they come to $119.
If Talisker 10 is your bottle, the one that tastes closest is Ledaig 10. Across the like-for-like bottles at Dan Murphy's it's the nearest twin, by the words in the reviews and by what drinkers reach for. It gives you about 96% of the Talisker, and costs $7 more.
Who drinks this?
310 bottles at Dan Murphy's can be priced per standard drink this week. Cheapest first: Grant's Triple Wood 1 litre at $1.99 a standard drink; the median is $4.16; Dalmore 21 Malt is the highest at $42.68. 235 of the 310 come in under a pint at the pub, which works out at $6.28 a standard drink.
Friday at Dan Murphy's, a mate stood in the whisky aisle holding a bottle of Talisker 10 and asked the only question that really matters before a dinner: will everyone at the table drink this?
305 bottles at Dan Murphy's can be priced per standard drink this week. Cheapest first: McAllister 1 litre at $2.00 a standard drink; the median is $4.03; Dalmore 21 Malt is the highest at $42.68. 228 of the 305 come in under a pint at the pub, which works out at $6.28 a standard drink.
Let's start with the number, because that's the news. Ledaig 10 is $99 for members at Dan Murphy's this week. From what we've seen it usually sells around $109, and across the times we've looked it has run between $99 and $112. So this week lands right at the floor: about as low as we've seen it.
| bottle | region | latest ticket | read | window price | CE 360° mean | premium | shelf rank | per std drink | drink rank | content |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ledaig 10 Year Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky | Islands | $111.99 | observed | $108.99 | $87.68 | 19.6% | #4 of 9 | $4.38 | #5 of 9 | 22 |