Macallan's 12 is the sane rung; the 15 asks near triple

Five of the six on the shelf read clearly enough to compare against their neighbours, and the median ticket across the range is $312. Only one of the five sits anywhere near the company the model places it in. The moment you step up the ladder past it, the gap stops growing by dollars and starts growing by multiples.

The sane rung is the 12 Year Old Double Cask at $137, about a tenth over the $125 its neighbours ask. For Macallan, a tenth over is as close to fair as the range comes. It is a proper sherried dram too: orange peel and leather over a base of sweetness, ginger and a little pepper on the end. If you want to know what the house does without paying the house tax, this is the bottle, and it is the only one here I would call good value in the ordinary sense.

Beside it, the Sherry Oak 12 at $170 is the next most reasonable, about a third over its $129 room. This is the sherry-forward 12, all baking spice and dried fruit, cake and toffee and leather, the oloroso turned up against its double-cask sibling. A third over is a real premium, but against what comes next it looks almost restrained.

Because next is where it goes wild. The 15 Year Old Double Cask is $378 against a neighbourhood near $135, which is close to triple what its company asks and the widest multiple on the whole desk. There is no published review to quote for it this week, so I will keep to what the model supports: it reads as heavily sherried, same family signature as the 12, three extra years in the price. Those three years cost you more than the entire 12 does. That is the number to sit with before you reach for it.

The 18 Year Old Double Cask is dearer still at $636, though oddly its gap is narrower in proportion, about four-fifths over its $351 room. Its neighbourhood is itself an expensive one, so the eighteen is being judged against genuinely pricey company and still sits well above it. Again, no review to draw character from this week beyond the sherried profile the model reads. At this price the whisky is almost beside the point; you are buying the age statement and the bottle it comes in.

The Classic Cut, the annual cask-strength release, is $245 against a room near $137, about four-fifths over. Here there is character to report: wood and oloroso, sherried cake, honey and toffee, the sweetness you expect carried at strength. A good whisky at a steep ask, which is the Macallan refrain in miniature.

What should you actually buy? If you want Macallan and you want it to make sense, the 12 Double Cask at $137 is the answer and more or less the only one; it is close to its room and it drinks the part. If your taste runs sweeter and heavier, the Sherry Oak 12 at $170 is worth the extra third for the oloroso lift. Past that, you are paying for age and name rather than for distance closed to the whiskies the model rates alongside each bottle, and the 15 in particular asks you to spend the price of a whole other good bottle for three more years in wood. Admire it. Think twice.

One caveat worth stating plainly: the model is less certain about Macallan than about most desks, because the bottles it rates as nearest company are spread more widely in price than usual. Read the gaps as firm in direction and looser in exact size.