Most of the Tomintoul shelf this week is priced for the patient and the deep-pocketed. One bottle on it looks like a mistake in your favour.
Tomintoul calls itself the gentle dram, and the name fits: this is soft, honeyed, fruit-led Speyside whisky, rarely loud, often sherry-touched. Six bottles are carrying a reading this week, and the model sets each against its crowd, the ten whiskies it rates most alike in flavour, reporting the gap in dollars and as a percentage over that crowd. The brand's middle price is a hefty $181, dragged up by a clutch of older bottles. One thing to say at the top: for the specialist and aged bottles here, the peer sets the model draws on are thin and scattered, so read those gaps as strong signals rather than exact sums. The footnote spells out which bottles that caution covers.
Tomintoul is a quiet Speyside name without the marketing reach of its famous neighbours, which tends to mean its everyday bottles are priced to move and its aged stock is priced for the people who chase old whisky. That split is exactly what this shelf shows, and it is unusually stark this week.
1/Aged Speyside rarely turns up this cheap. Tomintoul 16 is $132 for My Dan Murphy's members this week, against a shelf price of $181. It's the lower figure that's the news: a members' offer, not a repricing.
2/Where the ticket sits matters more than the sticker. This bottle's CE 360° jury calls fair value about $151, with a band floor of $141. At $132 the members' price is under the floor: genuinely below what its peers reckon it's worth.
3/Tomintoul is the quiet corner of Speyside — light, orchard-fruited, no big sherry, no smoke. A soft sixteen-year-old for $132 as of this morning. A smart aged-Speyside buy at that money, or too gentle for your taste? Post your local ticket.
Bottle open on the bench, a cold night. Glenfiddich Grand Cru 23: apricots in syrup and apple blossom on the nose, then pears, vanilla and warm white bread, a finish of toffee and coffee. $511 this week; it usually sells around $559. More in this week's piece.
Like Glenfiddich Grand Cru 23? For a drinker of it, Glen Moray 21 gives about 75% of what that bottle does, for 59% of the price, at $304 for members this week. Subtle oolong, ripe red fruits and Tawny Port, honey and oak over a creamy palate. Pour one; more in this week's piece.
Small one from this week's piece on Glenfiddich Grand Cru 23: hand it to a Glen Moray 15 drinker and they'd gladly pay 72% of what their own bottle costs just to have it instead, which is about the nearest answer going. The rest of it's waiting for you in the article.
I ran the numbers on a single pour: Glenfiddich Grand Cru 23 comes to $23.13 a standard drink, about 22 in the $511 bottle, which sits it 300th of 310 at Dan Murphy's that way. A pint runs $6.28 a drink, so a pour at home is well over that. More in this week's piece.
Curious what Glenfiddich Grand Cru 23 is doing this week? It's $511 at Dan Murphy's. It usually sells around $559, so this week sits a touch under. A guide, not a rush. More on it in this week's piece. Pour one and see where it lands for you.
Like Glenfiddich Grand Cru 23? Tomintoul 21 gives you about 77% of it, for 67% of the price. This week it's $340 for members. Floral fruits, sweet barley, a long almond-and-vanilla finish. Pour one yourself. The full piece on Glenfiddich Grand Cru 23 is up this week.
Love your Glenfiddich Grand Cru 23 and wondering what sits closest to it? Meet Tomintoul 25, the nearest twin at Dan Murphy's. It gives a Glenfiddich Grand Cru 23 drinker about 76% of what their bottle does, and costs $222 more.
If you drink Glenfiddich Grand Cru 23, the question is simple: is there anything close to it that asks less? There is, and it comes from the same still house. Glenfiddich Gran Reserva 21, $328, gives a Glenfiddich Grand Cru 23 drinker about 86% of what their own bottle does.
Most of what this distillery makes is built for easy drinking: honeyed, lightly sherried Speyside that rarely raises its voice, the sort of malt you pick when you want comfortable rather than challenging. Weigh the Tomintoul range against the bottles it actually shares a shelf with, though, and just one of its six still reads as a deal.
Most distilleries put one or two bottles on the shelf that undercut their neighbours. Tomintoul puts up almost a whole range of them. There is one asterisk worth reading first, and then a genuinely cheerful story underneath it.
Tomintoul calls itself the gentle dram. This week the gentleness runs all the way to the till, because most of the range comes in cheaper than the whiskies the model lines it up against.
| bottle | region | latest ticket | read | window price | CE 360° mean | premium | shelf rank | per std drink | drink rank | content |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tomintoul 16 Years Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky | Speyside | $180.99 | observed | $180.99 | $161.22 | 10.9% | #53 of 79 | $5.98 | #46 of 75 | 1 |
| Tomintoul 21 Years Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky | Speyside | $368.99 | observed | $368.99 | $331.42 | 10.2% | #50 of 79 | $15.39 | #66 of 75 | 7 |
| Tomintoul 25YO Speyside Single Malt Scotch Whisky | Speyside | $732.99 | observed | $732.99 | $614.40 | 16.2% | #70 of 79 | $30.86 | #74 of 75 | 8 |
| Tomintoul Cigar Malt Speyside Single Malt Scotch Whisky | Speyside | $179.99 | observed | $179.99 | $139.68 | 22.4% | #72 of 79 | $6.48 | #53 of 75 | 0 |
| Tomintoul Seiridh Oloroso Sherry Cask Finish Single Malt Scotch Whisky | Speyside | $91.99 | observed | $91.99 | $78.34 | 14.8% | #64 of 79 | $4.16 | #31 of 75 | 0 |
| Tomintoul Single Malt Peated Scotch Whisky | Speyside | $89.99 | observed | $89.99 | $77.50 | 13.9% | #62 of 79 | $4.07 | #30 of 75 | 0 |