The bottle most like The Dalmore 18 at a lower price comes from the same distillery. The Dalmore 12, $149, gives a Dalmore 18 drinker about 86% of what their own bottle does. Same name on the label, same oloroso hand, a fraction of the outlay.
What it is
The Dalmore 18 is matured in American oak and oloroso sherry casks. The nose is fragrant: honey, vanilla, ginger, orange marmalade, a wisp of smoke. It drinks fairly full-bodied. Tangy orange first, then marzipan, sherry and bitter chocolate, with the oak behind. The finish runs long on liquorice and citrus fruit. A considered dram, and an unhurried one.
What to pay
It's $536 at Dan Murphy's this week. That's where it usually sells, around $536, so nothing has moved. Across the bottle that works out at about $22.57 a standard drink — the cost of a pour at home.
What its neighbours' drinkers would pay
Here's a fair test. What would the drinkers of the bottles nearest it pay for The Dalmore 18, each starting from what they pay for their own?
A Glenfiddich 18 drinker would pay about $121 for it, which is 67% of what their own bottle costs them. They mark it down for the name on the label and for being stronger. The other way round, a Dalmore 18 drinker puts Glenfiddich 18 at 66% of their own bottle, mostly for the name on the label. So the two sit close in each other's reckoning.
Across the drinkers of the bottles nearest it, the answers run from $121 to $954. At $536, this week's price sits inside that spread.
Three stand-ins
Dalmore 21 Malt, usually $990. Twenty-one years of it: dark fruit, chocolate, a deep sherry influence, vanilla, orange peel and warming spice, then a finish that lingers. To a Dalmore 18 drinker it gives about 97% of what the 18 does.
The Dalmore 12, usually $149. Tangerines, barley sugar, milky coffee and sweet sherry on the inviting nose; orange, spicy dark chocolate, ginger and cocktail cherries over the palate; vanilla and prunes to close. To a Dalmore 18 drinker it gives about 86% of the 18. We've seen it between $130 and $149.
The Macallan Sherry Oak 12, usually $170. The youngest Sherry Oak expression, and a classic Macallan nose with it — sherry, baking Christmas cake, dried fruits, hot butter and old leather — then Jaffa oranges, brittle toffee and light oak on a smooth, full palate. To a Dalmore 18 drinker it gives about 80% of the 18. We've seen it between $158 and $170.
Who it's for
If the 18 is your bottle, $536 is what it costs this week, and nothing above stands in for it exactly. That honey-and-marmalade nose and the long liquorice finish are its own.
Want the Dalmore character for far less of the outlay? The Dalmore 12 is the one. Most of the way there, same house style, and it's the answer the numbers keep landing on.
Chasing more depth and not counting the cost? The 21 Malt takes the sherry and chocolate further, with the maturity to match.
Coming across from Glenfiddich 18 and curious about the sherried side of the fence? The Macallan Sherry Oak 12 is an easy start — all Christmas cake and Jaffa orange, and gentle with it.
And everyone else, if you just want to meet the Dalmore style and see what the fuss is: begin with the 12.
None recorded.
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