A mate pours you a finger of Glen Moray 21 at his place, the good cupboard open, and you spend the next ten minutes working out whether the one you've been eyeing at Dan Murphy's is really worth the stretch. Here's the short version before the glass is empty: the bottle most like the Glen Moray 21, for less, is made down the road at the same distillery. The Glen Moray 18, $164, gives a Glen Moray 21 drinker about 95% of what the 21 does.
So that's the spine of it. Same hands, younger, and almost all of the experience.
Back to the glass in front of you. The 21 noses like oolong and ripe red fruit, with a thin ribbon of Tawny Port laid over the top and small, quiet waves of baking spice coming up behind. There's caramel and oak in there too, sweet turning tart, summer berries and vanilla, a hint of honey before more of that oak. The palate is medium and rich, creamy, sweet, honeyed. It isn't a loud whisky. It's one you sit with.
| slot | 08-13 | 08-20 | 08-27 | 09-03 | 09-10 | 09-17 | 09-24 | 10-01 | 10-08 | 10-15 | 10-22 | 10-29 | 11-05 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| list / member | 342.99 observed | 342.99 m 304.00 observed | 342.99 m 304.00 observed | 342.99 m 304.00 observed | 342.99 observed | 342.99 observed | 342.99 observed | 342.99 observed | 342.99 observed | 342.99 observed | 342.99 observed | 342.99 observed | 342.99 m 304.00 observed |
| basis | mean | median | sd | min | max | range | cv | se mean | latest | own-range pctl |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| list | 342.99 | 342.99 | 0.00 | 342.99 | 342.99 | 0.00 | 0.0% | 0.00 | 342.99 | 100 |
| member | 330.99 | 342.99 | 18.73 | 304.00 | 342.99 | 38.99 | 5.7% | 5.19 | 304.00 | 31 |
| moments | m1 mean | m2 var | m3 skew | m4 ex-kurt | 95% band of the mean |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| list | 342.99 | 0.00 | null | null | 343.0 – 343.0 |
The Glenlivet 18: dried heathery flowers, tinned pineapple, windfall apples, then a turn to cedar and nutmeg. Tongue-clinging, custard tart, autumn fruit on the finish — curtains drawn, settling in for winter. $170 for members at Dan Murphy's. More in this week's piece.
I keep coming back to this: if you love The Glenlivet 18, The Glenlivet 15 at $153 gives you about 96% of what it does, for 90% of the price. Perfumed oak, apple and pear, soft white pepper. More in this week's piece.
Hand a The Glenlivet 15 drinker a bottle of The Glenlivet 18 and they'd pay 78% of what their own bottle costs, marking it down mostly for the extra years it carries over theirs. More on The Glenlivet 18, and where it sits, in this week's piece. Pour one and see.
Melon and apricot, a little apple pie. That's Glen Moray 18. For a The Glenlivet 18 drinker it gives about 87% of what the 18 does, at 96% of the price. $164 this week. More in this week's piece on The Glenlivet 18.
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.
Melon and apricot. A warm, soft dram. Glen Moray 18 gives a Glen Moray 21 drinker about 95% of what the 21 does, for 54% of the price. It's $164. A soft yes for the 21 lover who'd happily pour this of an evening. More on Glen Moray 21 in this week's piece.
Put Glen Moray 21 beside the bottles nearest it and ask those drinkers what it's worth to them. Their answers run from $76 to $415, each starting from what they pay for their own. This week it's $304 for members, sitting inside that spread. More in this week's piece.
Glen Moray 21 comes to about $11.89 a pour at home, roughly 26 standard drinks to the bottle. If a creamy, honeyed sipper to linger over after dinner is your kind of thing, this is one to pour slowly and savour. More on where it sits this week.
Glen Moray 21 is the pour for someone after an old Speyside that stays soft and sweet: creamy, honeyed, a wisp of Tawny Port and ripe red fruits. It's $304 for members at Dan Murphy's this week; it usually sells around $343. More on where it sits in this week's piece.
Like Glen Moray 21? The Glenlivet 18 gives a Glen Moray 21 drinker about 88% of what they love, for 56% of the price, and it's $170 for members. Dried flowers, tinned pineapple, a settling-in-for-winter dram. Worth a pour. More on the Glen Moray 21 in this week's piece.
The Glenlivet 18 keeps that familiar mix of fruit and flowers, now more concentrated: dried heather, tinned pineapple, windfall apples, cedar and nutmeg, liquorous and tongue-clinging over custard tart. Curtains drawn, winter settling in. $250, more in this week's piece.
Friday night, the 18 feels too good to open on a whim. The Glenlivet 15 steps in: perfumed oak, apple and pear, a little white pepper. For anyone on The Glenlivet 18, it gives about 95% of the 18 at 50% of the price, $125 for members. More in this week's piece.
Dried flowers, tinned pineapple, the curtains drawn for winter. Pour The Glenlivet 18 for a Glencadam 15 drinker and they'd pay 82% of what their own bottle costs, marking it down for being lighter in strength. More on The Glenlivet 18 in this week's piece.
Glencadam 15 stands in nicely for The Glenlivet 18, giving that drinker about 84% of what it pours for 56% of the price, at $140 for members; the delicate floral nose, cooking apples and white pepper make the case quietly, and this week's piece has the fuller account.
Two 21-year-olds, side by side. Glen Moray 21 costs $12 more a bottle than Glenfiddich Gran Reserva 21, but at 46.3% against 40% it's the cheaper drink: $13.41 a standard drink against $14.98. They rhyme more than they differ: one on Tawny Port, summer berries and honey, the other on toffee, dried fruit and a Cuban rum cask. Across the group the pour runs from $8.14 for the Glenfiddich 18 to $27.37 for the Balvenie Stories 21. Want the Port and the strength? Glen Moray 21, $343. Want the sweeter, creamier 40%? Gran Reserva, $331.
Billy's on the fire, two bottles in the camp box. Old mate wanders over, swirls his glass. 'Warm and soft, this one. Melon and apricot, bit of dried hay. What'd you call it?' Glen Moray 18, I tell him — $164 at Dan Murphy's. He settles back on his swag.
One cold evening at a mate's place, he reaches into the cupboard and pours The Glenlivet 18 without asking. You settle in. It is the kind of whisky that makes you want to pull the curtains and let the week go.
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.
If The Glenlivet 18 is your bottle, here is the question worth asking: what sits nearest to it for less money? The answer comes from the same distillery. The Glenlivet 15, $125 for members, gives a Glenlivet 18 drinker about 95% of what their own bottle does. Same house, half the outlay, nearly all the whisky.
| # | candidate | price | CEARP | price − CEARP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Glen Moray 18 Year Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky 700mL | $163.99 | $325.25 | -161.26 |
| 2 | The Balvenie Stories 21YO 'The Second Red Rose' Single Malt Scotch Whisky 700mL | $726.99 | $311.74 | +415.25 |
| 3 | The Glenlivet 18 Year Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky 700mL | $184.99 | $310.80 | -125.81 |
| 4 | GLEN GRANT 18 YEARS 700ML | $213.99 | $308.97 | -94.98 |
| 5 | Glenfiddich Gran Reserva 21 Year Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky 700mL | $298.95 | $305.23 | -6.28 |
| 6 | The Balvenie The Balvenie 21 Year Old Portwood Single Malt Scotch Whisky 700mL | $452.99 | $300.37 | +152.62 |
| 7 | The Glen Grant 15 Year Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky 700mL | $148.99 | $281.55 | -132.56 |
| 8 | The Glenlivet 15 Year Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky 700mL | $125.00 | $280.91 | -155.91 |
| 9 | Glenfiddich Grand Cru 23 Year Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky 700mL | $558.99 | $277.36 | +281.63 |
| 10 | Glen Moray 15 Year Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky 700mL | $94.00 | $275.92 | -181.92 |