Pay more for the blend, less for the single malt. That is backwards, and it is exactly how Northern Ireland's three whiskeys line up this week. The one bottle priced under its nearest neighbours is the malt, and it wears the oldest name of the three.
Northern Ireland on this shelf is more or less Bushmills country, the old County Antrim distillery that is one of the oldest names in Irish whiskey, alongside a revived Belfast blend. Three bottles here, a middle price of $74, nothing tagged above $81. Two of the three ask more than their crowd of nearest neighbours. The exception, and the pick, is the one most drinkers would assume costs the most.
That is the Bushmills 10 Year Old single malt at $79, sitting about 4% under the roughly $82 that its ten nearest run. The margin is slim, but it is the only bottle on this shelf priced below its own company rather than above it, and it is a single malt doing it. Triple-distilled in the Irish way, it drinks soft and clean: honey and a creamy weight, ripe peach, a lift of citrus peel, a little pepper right at the end. This is the style Ireland is loved for, light and easy without being thin, and for once the tag is not asking a premium for it.
For once, two separate reads agree on the Glen Grant 10: it is cheap. At $81 it sits under the floor its own cohort would set, and at the very bottom of its own price history. When the value model and the bottle's own record line up, that is rarer than either read on its own.
The best-value whisky on the Northern Ireland shelf this week is the single malt. That almost never happens.
| bottle | region | latest ticket | read | window price | CE 360° mean | premium | shelf rank | per std drink | drink rank | content |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bushmills 10 Year Old Single Malt Irish Whiskey | Northern Ireland | $78.99 | observed | $78.99 | $54.63 | 30.8% | #2 of 3 | $3.26 | #3 of 3 | 1 |
| Bushmills Black Bush Irish Whiskey | Northern Ireland | $65.99 | observed | $61.00 | $48.16 | 21.1% | #1 of 3 | $2.99 | #2 of 3 | 0 |
| McConnell's Belfast Blended Irish Whisky | Northern Ireland | $82.99 | observed | $82.99 | $47.85 | 42.4% | #3 of 3 | $2.93 | #1 of 3 | 0 |