1/Chivas Regal 25 is a $646 blend this week — the house's flagship, priced for the cabinet.
2/The engine's third-closest match to it sits in the same family: Chivas Regal 18, at $114. One maker, two age statements, five hundred and thirty-two dollars between them. The 18 is $114 now, where it was $136 when we last wrote it up.
3/What makes this pairing stand out is the agreement. The value model and the profile model usually pull apart; here both rank the 18 third-closest to the 25. Two independent reads landing on the same bottle is rarer than one.
4/Not the same whisky — the 25's extra seven years in oak are real, and they are some of what the $646 buys. But as the engine's stand-in, it's $114 against $646. Which would you actually pour? If your local ticket on the 18 differs, tell me.
2026-10-01-cycle/value-pick/chivas-regal-25-year-old-blended-scotch-whisky-700ml-chivas--085949, grounded on vintage 2026-10-01.1; harvest pair base 2026-09-24, latest 2026-10-01 (grounding.trigger.base_harvest / latest_harvest).None recorded.
Value pick, automated light form. The payload carries two shelf tickets, the engine's ranks and scores, the saving and the week's event; it does NOT carry the reference's CE 360° jury, so there is no ten-seats read of the Chivas 25 here — I open on its shelf ticket. The trigger is the stand-in easing: the Chivas 18 is $114 this week, under Price Raid's bar, so it stays a value pick, not a raid, and the thread does not call it a drop. Shelf basis both legs. Candidate ranks in the reference's CE top-5 (CE rank 3), and the profile model agrees (VSM rank 3) — a rare both-ways match.
{
"date": "2026-10-01T00:00:00.000Z",
"title": "Same maker, a sixth of the price: Chivas 18 stands in for the 25",
"angle": "value-pick",
"position": "n/a",
"status": "draft",
"derives_from": "none — standalone value pick, automated cycle; no long-form article backs it this week",
"grounded_on": "2026-10-01.1",
"may_publish": true,
"review_priority": "standard",
"artefact_id": "2026-10-01-cycle/value-pick/chivas-regal-25-year-old-blended-scotch-whisky-700ml-chivas--085949",
"claims": [
{
"item": "Chivas Regal 25 Year Old Blended Scotch Whisky 700mL",
"kind": "price",
"value": 646
},
{
"item": "Chivas Regal 18 Year Old Blended Scotch Whisky 700mL",
"kind": "price",
"value": 114
}
],
"subjects": [
"Chivas Regal 25 Year Old Blended Scotch Whisky 700mL",
"Chivas Regal 18 Year Old Blended Scotch Whisky 700mL"
],
"format_note": "Value pick, automated light form. The payload carries two shelf tickets, the engine's ranks and scores, the saving and the week's event; it does NOT carry the reference's CE 360° jury, so there is no ten-seats read of the Chivas 25 here — I open on its shelf ticket. The trigger is the stand-in easing: the Chivas 18 is $114 this week, under Price Raid's bar, so it stays a value pick, not a raid, and the thread does not call it a drop. Shelf basis both legs. Candidate ranks in the reference's CE top-5 (CE rank 3), and the profile model agrees (VSM rank 3) — a rare both-ways match.",
"verified_at": "2026-10-01T09:59:02.000Z",
"verified_by": "etl/price_verify.py",
"verified_prices": {
"360126": 645.99,
"384924": 113.95
},
"verification_note": "2 price claim(s) verified live",
"quality_gate": "pass",
"gated_at": "2026-10-01T09:59:02.000Z",
"site_publish": true,
"quality_notes": "soft cooldown: 1 repeat(s) inside the 4-week cool-down, each with a changed finding; the piece must say w"
}