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Dan Murphy's · week of 2026-11-05
vintage 2026-11-05.1
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From the Talisker desk · Thread · Value pick · 2026-08-20

Talisker's port-cask idea for half the ticket

mergedflaggedmay_publish falsequality passsite_publish trueprices: 2 price claim(s) verified live

1/Ten single malts were asked what Talisker Port Ruighe is worth, scored on flavour make-up. The average answer came back around $76. The shelf wants $149 for it this week — a members' price of $133 has just lapsed.

2/So it's back to carrying a big premium. The engine's single closest match on profile, ranked 1st of the lot, is Starward Unexpeated, a port-and-peat Australian single malt, at $75.

3/And $75 is about what Starward should cost: its own jury reads it near $66, so you're paying roughly market, not a premium. Same idea in the glass, smoke wrapped in wine-cask fruit, for $74 less.

4/Not the same whisky, and not a like-for-like pour. It's profile geometry: the model says the two sit in the same corner. Talisker Port Ruighe at $149, or the Starward at $75? What's it going for near you?

Sources

  • generate_cycle.py replay payload, artefact 2026-08-20-replay/value-pick/talisker-port-ruighe-single-malt-scotch-whisky-700ml-starwar-fbdd72, grounded on vintage 2026-08-20.r; harvest pair base 2026-08-13, latest 2026-08-20.
  • Talisker Port Ruighe: shelf ticket $149 this week (claim value 149.0; grounding.ref.price_this_harvest 149.0); last week $133 as a member offer (grounding.ref.price_last_harvest 133.0, member_offer_last_harvest true; trigger.member_offer_ended true). CE 360° mean $76.31 (2026-08-20.r dossier talisker-port-ruighe-single-malt-scotch-neighbourhood.md; ten-member jury; gap over consensus 42.6% = 99th percentile).
  • Starward Unexpeated: shelf ticket $75 (claim value 75.0; grounding.cand.price_this_harvest 75.0), unchanged week-on-week, not a member offer. CE 360° mean $66.25 (2026-08-20.r dossier starward-unexpeated-single-malt-australi-neighbourhood.md; gap 11.7% = 63rd percentile).
  • Engine pairing: Starward is CE rank 3 and VSM rank 1 in Talisker Port Ruighe's cohort (grounding.ce_rank 3, vsm_rank 1; ce_score 0.0398, vsm_score 0.9701). Saving $74 (grounding.saving 74.0 = 149 − 75); price ratio 0.50 (grounding.ratio).
  • Shared character: both carry Peat & Maritime + Wine Cask & Jammy Fruit factor loadings (Talisker Port Ruighe 0.13 + 0.12; Starward Unexpeated 0.21 + 0.14) — the "smoke wrapped in wine-cask fruit" read — 2026-08-20.r dossiers.

Omissions

  • Light form: no CE 360 band shown for the candidate, and the reference's jury figure is read from the dossier (named above), not the module payload.
  • The reference "got dearer" only in the sense that a member offer ended; the list movement is disclosed as an offer lapsing, never as a repricing.
  • No peer beyond the engine's top match is examined; a closer stand-in may exist that was not live-checked this cycle.

Notes for reviewer

  • Flagged: params.still_stands is true here (the reference did not come back down and the stand-in did not rise), so the pick is drafted; the sibling value-pick candidate this cycle (Starward Panettone / For Peat's Sake) had still_stands: false and is omitted, named below.
  • Flagged: cross-origin substitution (Scotch reference, Australian stand-in). The post keeps the claim to profile geometry (VSM rank 1) and does not assert they taste identical.
  • Replay draft on rehearsal vintage 2026-08-20.r; may_publish: false and never flips in replay.

Format note

Value pick, automated light form. The module payload carries two shelf tickets, the engine's ranks, the saving and the week's event; it does NOT carry the reference's CE 360 jury, so the ten-seats open below is read from the 2026-08-20.r dossier for Talisker Port Ruighe (mean $76.31), not written from memory. The trigger is the reference getting dearer: a My Dan Murphy's member offer on Talisker Port Ruighe lapsed ($133 member last week → $149 shelf this week) — disclosed as an offer ending, not a repricing. Shelf basis this week. Candidate ranks in the reference's CE top-5 (CE rank 3, VSM rank 1).

Frontmatter as merged
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 "date": "2026-08-20T00:00:00.000Z",
 "title": "Talisker's port-cask idea for half the ticket",
 "angle": "value-pick",
 "position": "n/a",
 "status": "draft",
 "derives_from": "none — standalone; the automated replay cycle grounds this on the vintage's dyadic pool and the week's harvest, no long-form article backs it",
 "grounded_on": "2026-08-20.r",
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 "format_note": "Value pick, automated light form. The module payload carries two shelf tickets, the engine's ranks, the saving and the week's event; it does NOT carry the reference's CE 360 jury, so the ten-seats open below is read from the 2026-08-20.r dossier for Talisker Port Ruighe (mean $76.31), not written from memory. The trigger is the reference getting dearer: a My Dan Murphy's member offer on Talisker Port Ruighe lapsed ($133 member last week → $149 shelf this week) — disclosed as an offer ending, not a repricing. Shelf basis this week. Candidate ranks in the reference's CE top-5 (CE rank 3, VSM rank 1).",
 "claims": [
  {
   "item": "Talisker Port Ruighe Single Malt Scotch Whisky 700mL",
   "kind": "price",
   "value": 149
  },
  {
   "item": "Starward Unexpeated Single Malt Australian Whisky 700mL",
   "kind": "price",
   "value": 75
  }
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 "subjects": [
  "Talisker Port Ruighe Single Malt Scotch Whisky 700mL",
  "Starward Unexpeated Single Malt Australian Whisky 700mL"
 ],
 "verified_at": "2026-09-27T05:53:06.000Z",
 "verified_by": "etl/price_verify.py (harvest sidecar danmurphys_whisky_products_2026-08-20.normalised.csv, as of 2026-08-20)",
 "verified_prices": {
  "174534": 75,
  "784436": 148.99
 },
 "verification_note": "2 price claim(s) verified live",
 "quality_gate": "pass",
 "gated_at": "2026-09-27T05:53:06.000Z",
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}
premium over CE 360° · shared scale 0% to +70% across the eleven
source file: drafts/2026-08-20-value-pick-talisker-port-ruighe-starward-unexpeated.md