Johnnie Walker's value sits at the bottom of the range

That is not the order most people shop the range in. Johnnie Walker is built as a ladder, Red at the bottom and the prestige labels up top, and the assumption is that you climb it for better whisky and pay fairly at each rung. The model, which rates every bottle against its flavour-crowd of the ten blends nearest it on taste, says the fair pricing is all at the bottom. The higher you climb, the further each bottle drifts over its crowd. The brand's middle price lands near $88.

Red Label in the litre is the surprise, because there is barely a premium on it at all. It is the plain, brisk, ginger-and-apple blend built for mixing, with lemon, a little dried fruit and a dry, cracker-like finish. At $69 against a crowd of $68, it sits about a dollar over, so for practical purposes it is priced right on its flavour-peers. That almost never happens with a name this size. If you want a workaday scotch for highballs and the name on the bottle, Red in the litre is as honestly priced as the famous blends get.

Black Ruby is the other one at the value end, and it reads as the only bottle here that sits at or under its crowd. A sweeter, softer, fruit-forward blend, blackcurrant and raspberry over a gentle whiff of smoke, it asks $70 against a crowd near $75. So it is a few dollars under its taste-peers rather than over them, which is rare on this shelf. I would put a soft edge on that, because its crowd is loosely defined this week and the exact figure moves around, but the direction is clear enough: Black Ruby is not where the premium lives.

Now climb the ladder and watch the gap open. Green Label, the all-malt blend, is grassy and green with a creamy body, a mint lift and a coastal, briny edge that sets it apart from its grain-heavy siblings. It is a genuinely different and likeable style. At $107 against a $66 crowd it is about $41 over, roughly 62%. Double Black turns the smoke up on the standard recipe, peat and orchard fruit and a drift of campfire, and at $117 against an $81 crowd it is about $36 over, roughly 44%, though its crowd too is a loose one this week.

The top of the range is where the money really goes. Gold Label Reserve is a rich, creamy, dried-fruit blend with a melon note and barley-sugar sweetness, a lovely celebratory pour. It is also $150 against a crowd of $65, about $85 over, roughly 131%, the widest gap in the range by proportion. The 18 Year Old is the most complete whisky of the lot, ashy and green with real peat, honey and a creamy depth that only age gives a blend. At $179 against a $112 crowd it is about $67 over, roughly 60%. Both are good. Neither is priced anywhere near what its taste-peers charge, and that is the toll you pay for the oldest, grandest names in blended scotch.

The crowds these gaps are measured against are other blended scotches of similar style, which is the fair room for a Johnnie Walker to be judged in. That is what makes the pattern striking. Red Label is not cheap because it is being compared to cheap things; it is sitting right on the going rate for the blends that taste like it. The prestige labels are not dear because the model has found odd company for them; they are dear against the blends a buyer would genuinely weigh them against. The ladder is real, and so is the widening toll at each rung up it.

None of this says the premium labels are bad whisky. They are not. Gold and the 18 are the sort of bottles you buy for an occasion and enjoy every drop of, and a famous name running over its crowd is the ordinary condition on this shelf, not a scandal. What the numbers do is tell you where your money is working hardest. At the bottom of the range it is buying whisky at close to the going rate. At the top it is buying whisky plus a large and widening slice of prestige.

So, the shopping call. For mixing and everyday pouring, Red Label in the litre at $69 is the honest buy, priced right on its peers. If you want a little more character for about the same money, Black Ruby at $70 is the sweeter, fruitier option and the only bottle here sitting under its crowd. Green Label at $107 is the one to reach for when you want something genuinely distinct from the house style and you have decided the grassy, briny malt blend is worth it. And the grand bottles, Gold at $150 and the 18 at $179, are occasion whiskies: buy them knowing you are paying well over the rate for the flavour, because the name and the age are part of what you are buying and you have decided you want them.