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.
1/Dewar's 15 is the one most of the table gets along with, and yet it's priced for the ones who already love it. That's the verdict — here's how it earns it.
2/Ask the drinkers of the bottles nearest Dewar's 15 what it's worth to them, each starting from what they pay for their own, and the answers run from $52 to $66. At $80 it sits above all of them: it's priced for its fans.
3/On the nose: vanilla and melon, then banana, apple and a little orange, lightly woody. It usually sells around $80, about $3.62 a standard drink, a touch under a pour by the pint at the pub. A yes if it's already your bottle; worth a look if you're new to it.
Like your Dewar's 15? Dewar's 12 hands a Dewar's 15 drinker about 97% of what the 15 gives, for 86% of the price, and it's $69 this week. Same family, a year shy. The rest is in this week's piece.
I handed a few Dewar's 12 drinkers a glass of Dewar's 15 the other night, just to see. They'd each pay about 87% of what their own bottle costs them for it. Not bad for a stranger's pour. Would you make the swap? The full story's in this week's piece on Dewar's 15.
Dewar's 15 is $80, around 22 standard drinks to the bottle, so a pour at home works out at about $3.62 a drink. A pint at the pub sits closer to $6.28 a standard drink. More on Dewar's 15 in this week's piece.
Dewar's 15 is $80 at Dan Murphy's this week. It usually sells around $80, so this sits about where it always does. Vanilla, melon, a little orange, a whisper of wood. Around $3.62 a pour at home, under a pint at the pub. The full read is in this week's piece.
Like Dewar's 15? Label 5 Premium Reserve 12 gives a Dewar's 15 drinker about 97% of what it does, for 85% of the price. The price: $68. Soft smoke, banana, a little apple. More in this week's piece.
Like Dewar's 15? Pour a Dimple 12 — toffee, warm caramel, a slip of citrus. It gives a Dewar's 15 drinker about 97% of what the Dewar's 15 does, for 67% of the price, at $54. More on Dewar's 15 in this week's piece.
Grant's Triple Wood 1 litre $1.99, Label 5 Classic Black 1 litre $2.00, McAllister 1.5 litres $2.05, Johnnie Walker Red Label 1 litre $2.06 and 1 more below. The median of the 45 is $2.72.
Love Dewar's 15? Dimple 12 gives a Dewar's 15 drinker about 97% of what the Dewar's 15 does, for 67% of its price. Same table, most of the way there, for two-thirds of the spend.
Two rungs this week: Black Label 12 at $58, and the 18 at $179. One is a world-famous blend, poised and balanced, toffee and caramel under a twist of white smoke. The other sits a good way up the ladder. So before you reach for the taller bottle, here's the question worth asking: what does the step up actually get you? Let's walk it.
Most of the blends shelf asks a little over fair; one bottle, Ballantine's Finest, sits exactly on its mark. I sorted all 77 blends by style, Scotch, Irish and Japanese, each priced live at Dan Murphy's. Near end: cheap grocery Scotch and Irish. Far end: Japanese and old Irish.
This week I ran the whole blended-malt shelf. The vatted malts: Monkey Shoulder, Compass Box, Copper Dog, Shinobu, Chivas Ultis. Nine bottles, every one priced live at Dan Murphy's. Here's the bit that stood out: not one of them sits under fair value.
The blended-Scotch shelf offers no bargains this week, only well-known names at full price. It's the catch-all for blends from across Scotland, in no single region. Twenty-seven bottles, each priced live at Dan Murphy's. Cheap end, big-format; dear end, prestige.
Ballantine's is back on its number, anchoring the cheap end of the blend shelf. Sixty-two bottles priced live at Dan Murphy's this Thursday — the whole aisle, not a slice. Since last look, 31 of 62 have shifted price or zone. The far end? Two Hibikis and a Chivas 25.
Ballantine's Finest lands bang on its own 360° jury number this week — a 0% gap, as close to fair as this blended shelf gets. Twenty of twenty priced live at Dan Murphy's this Thursday, so it's the whole shelf. Since our last look 21 days back, 13 of the 20 moved price or zone.
If you want a blend that sits close to what its own peers reckon it's worth, look at the big litre bottles. Ballantine's Finest 1L at $69 lands dead on its CE 360° jury — zero premium, the fairest ticket on the whole blended shelf this Thursday.
Stood at the blended-Scotch bay this Thursday and the honest bottles were all down near my knees. Twenty blends on this shelf, every one priced live at Dan Murphy's, and the ones closest to fair value are the cheap old workhorses, not the boxed ones up top.
Two Scotches at their own floor this week, and the shelf's oddest near-miss. Johnnie Walker Black is $53, Lagavulin 16 is $145 — both plain shelf tickets, neither a members-only deal. Put them together and the pair is the cheapest it has been in the six weeks I have tracked it.
Blends are the cheap seats of whisky, but the top of the blended shelf carries a passport. Fifty bottles across every whisky nation, and while the fair end is all Scotch, the dear end belongs to Japan and Ireland.
The blended shelf is the cheapest wall in the room and the most honestly priced. Nineteen bottles, all checked today, and the entry blends land almost exactly on their own CE 360 numbers. Ballantine's Finest sits bang on its mark at $59.
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.
Here is the short version, and it stays true all the way down: the bottle nearest to Dewar's 15 for less money is its own younger sibling. Dewar's 12 is $69, and to a Dewar's 15 drinker it does about 97% of what the 15 does. Same house, same double ageing, a few dollars saved. If you came for a headline, that is it.
Twenty-seven blended scotches on the shelf this week, the kind you walk past in every bottle shop. The cheap end is where you go looking for a bargain. Not one of the familiar budget names is actually cheap against its own company.
Every blend I looked at on this shelf costs more than the drams that taste like it. The only question is how much more.
The six biggest names on the blended shelf have one thing in common this week. Not one of them is priced at or below what its neighbours cost. The only question is how far above.
Peat shows up in blends too, and two of them this week make the label a poor guide to price. One asks $63. The other asks $102. Neither hints that the cheaper pour is the fairer buy.
| bottle | region | latest ticket | read | window price | CE 360° mean | premium | shelf rank | per std drink | drink rank | content |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ballantine's Finest Blended Scotch Whisky | Multi-Regional Blend | $68.90 | observed | $48.27 | $47.70 | 1.2% | #5 of 27 | $2.18 | #4 of 26 | 2 |
| Compass Box Artist Blend Scotch Whisky | Multi-Regional Blend | $89.99 | observed | $89.99 | $86.12 | 4.3% | #17 of 27 | $3.79 | #19 of 26 | 2 |
| Compass Box Glasgow Blend Scotch Whisky | Multi-Regional Blend | $89.99 | observed | $89.99 | $85.33 | 5.2% | #18 of 27 | $3.79 | #20 of 26 | 2 |
| Compass Box The Peat Monster Blended Malt Scotch Whisky | Multi-Regional Blend | $101.99 | observed | $101.99 | $72.70 | 28.7% | #27 of 27 | $2.76 | #15 of 26 | 2 |
| Cutty Sark Original Blended Scotch Whisky | Multi-Regional Blend | $58.99 | observed | $58.99 | $57.79 | 2.0% | #9 of 27 | $2.67 | #14 of 26 | 2 |
| Dewar's 15 Year Old Blended Scotch Whisky | Multi-Regional Blend | $79.99 | observed | $79.99 | $65.13 | 18.6% | #25 of 27 | $3.62 | #18 of 26 | 12 |
| For Peat's Sake Blended Scotch Whisky | Multi-Regional Blend | $62.99 | observed | $62.99 | $61.70 | 2.0% | #10 of 27 | $2.44 | #8 of 26 | 2 |
| Grant's Triple Wood Scotch Whisky | Multi-Regional Blend | $90.99 | observed | $56.62 | $54.99 | 2.9% | #12 of 27 | $2.56 | #12 of 26 | 2 |
| Isle Of Skye 8 Years Old Blended Scotch Whisky | Multi-Regional Blend | $63.99 | observed | $61.99 | $56.91 | 8.2% | #23 of 27 | $2.63 | #13 of 26 | 2 |
| J&B Rare Blended Scotch Whisky | Multi-Regional Blend | $52.99 | observed | $53.99 | $53.10 | 1.6% | #7 of 27 | $2.40 | #7 of 26 | 2 |
| Johnnie Walker Black Label 12 Year Old Blended Scotch Whisky | Multi-Regional Blend | $77.99 | observed | $55.97 | $51.56 | 7.9% | #21 of 27 | $2.47 | #11 of 26 | 2 |
| Johnnie Walker Black Label 12 | Multi-Regional Blend | $54.99 | observed | $55.90 | $51.51 | 7.8% | #20 of 27 | $2.44 | #9 of 26 | 4 |
| Johnnie Walker Black Ruby Blended Scotch Whisky | Multi-Regional Blend | $52.50 | observed | $67.99 | $65.51 | 3.6% | #15 of 27 | $2.38 | #6 of 26 | 2 |
| Johnnie Walker Blue Indian Festive Blended Scotch Whisky | Multi-Regional Blend | $286.00 | observed | $286.00 | $267.99 | 6.3% | #19 of 27 | $12.69 | #26 of 26 | 2 |
| Johnnie Walker Blue Label Blended Scotch Whisky 1L | Multi-Regional Blend | $365.99 | observed | $256.19 | $234.85 | 8.3% | #24 of 27 | $10.30 | #24 of 26 | 2 |
| Johnnie Walker Blue Label Blended Scotch Whisky 700mL | Multi-Regional Blend | $229.90 | observed | $239.95 | $220.63 | 8.1% | #22 of 27 | $10.41 | #25 of 26 | 2 |
| Johnnie Walker Double Black Blended Scotch Whisky 1L | Multi-Regional Blend | $116.99 | observed | $65.80 | $64.63 | 1.8% | #8 of 27 | $2.98 | #16 of 26 | 2 |
| Johnnie Walker Gold Label Reserve Blended Scotch Whisky 1L | Multi-Regional Blend | $149.99 | observed | $104.99 | $101.28 | 3.5% | #14 of 27 | $4.75 | #23 of 26 | 2 |
| Johnnie Walker Gold Label Reserve Blended Scotch Whisky 700mL | Multi-Regional Blend | $88.80 | observed | $88.75 | $86.16 | 2.9% | #13 of 27 | $4.02 | #21 of 26 | 2 |
| Johnnie Walker Green Label Blended Scotch Whisky | Multi-Regional Blend | $103.99 | observed | $103.00 | $98.92 | 4.0% | #16 of 27 | $4.34 | #22 of 26 | 2 |
| Johnnie Walker Red Label Blended Scotch Whisky 1.125L | Multi-Regional Blend | $78.99 | observed | $49.15 | $48.64 | 1.0% | #4 of 27 | $2.22 | #5 of 26 | 2 |
| Johnnie Walker Red Label Blended Scotch Whisky 1L | Multi-Regional Blend | $64.90 | observed | $46.13 | $45.82 | 0.7% | #3 of 27 | $2.06 | #2 of 26 | 3 |
| McAllister Blended Scotch Whisky | Multi-Regional Blend | $96.99 | observed | $45.26 | $45.05 | 0.5% | #1 of 27 | $2.05 | #1 of 26 | 3 |
| McAllister Scotch Whisky | Multi-Regional Blend | $65.95 | observed | $46.89 | $46.60 | 0.6% | #2 of 27 | $2.09 | #3 of 26 | 3 |
| Monkey Shoulder Blended Malt Scotch Whisky 1L | Multi-Regional Blend | $97.99 | observed | $80.49 | $59.77 | 25.7% | #26 of 27 | — | — | 0 |
| Pure Scot Blended Scotch Whisky | Multi-Regional Blend | $76.99 | observed | $71.99 | $70.10 | 2.6% | #11 of 27 | $3.48 | #17 of 26 | 2 |
| Whyte & Mackay Original Whisky | Multi-Regional Blend | $53.99 | observed | $53.99 | $53.30 | 1.3% | #6 of 27 | $2.44 | #10 of 26 | 2 |