Hellyers Road's two entry drams beat their crowd

That is the rare thing here, and it is worth saying plainly before the detail. Australian single malt is expensive, and Tasmanian single malt is the dearest of the lot. Four Hellyers Road bottles carry a reading this week, and two of them are priced below the whiskies the model rates nearest them on taste, their flavour-crowd. On a shelf where almost everything local asks over the odds, a bottle priced under its field is close to a unicorn, and this distillery has a pair of them. The brand's middle price is $135, but the value is not in the middle. It is at the entry.

The Roaring Forties is the flagship and the best buy in the house. It is the distillery's signature make: banana and a creamy texture, a tropical lift, light and grassy with a cereal note underneath. It drinks younger and brighter than its price suggests. At $99 against a crowd near $128, it is about 23% under its neighbours, the widest discount of any bottle in this range and one of the better value calls anywhere on the Tasmanian shelf. A local single malt under a hundred dollars is unusual enough; one priced a clear quarter below its flavour-matches is the bottle to grab.