The Glen Grant 10, Light on Its Feet

It is a Speysider that wears its region lightly: floral and fresh, with honeyed vanilla running through it and a lively streak of fruit, and if you go looking you'll find a little marshmallow and hay sitting behind that. The finish is soft and dry, and the whole thing is straightforward in the best sense, an uncomplicated, clean malt that is easy to take to from the first pour. It asks nothing of you.

What to pay. This week it's $70 for members at Dan Murphy's. From what we've seen it usually sells around $81, moving between $70 and $81, so the figure in front of you is at the friendly end of its own habits rather than anything out of the ordinary.

What its neighbours' drinkers would pay. Here the question runs the other way: not what you'd pay, but what the drinker of the nearest bottle would give for this one, each of them starting from what they already pay for their own. An Aberfeldy 12 drinker lands at about $93 for The Glen Grant 10, which comes to 90% of what their own bottle costs them, and the marks they take off are for it not being a Highlander and for being the younger dram of the two. Turn it around and a Glen Grant 10 drinker puts Aberfeldy 12 at 98% of their own, easing it down for being the older malt and for its sherry and dried-fruit leanings. Across the drinkers of the bottles sitting closest to it, the answers run from $67 up to $97, and at $70 for members this week's price falls inside that spread rather than outside it.

What stands out across those figures is how close these bottles live to one another. The numbers below say the same thing in a different way.

The stand-ins.

Glen Moray 12, $71 for members this week and usually around $79, moving between $71 and $79. Matured in bourbon casks, it's honey, icing sugar, toffee bonbons and orange peel on the nose, then barley sugar, soft oak and a touch of nectarine and lychee before honey returns at the close. To a Glen Grant 10 drinker it gives about 99% of what their own bottle gives, for 101% of its price. As near as makes no difference, both ways.

The Glenlivet 12, $79 this week and the same $79 as its usual, seen between $74 and $80. A malt built on lightness with enough of a base under it to let the flower open: lily, orchid and pineapple, a creaminess that beds those down, and with water a little mandarin, rose petal and a sneeze of white pepper. To a Glen Grant 10 drinker it stands in at about 98% of their own, for 112% of the price.

Aberfeldy 12, $104 this week and sitting around $104. Fresh and floral, with lively tropical fruit, honey and vanilla, a slightly syrupy malty middle, and a youthful orange-marmalade finish with a hint of spice. To a Glen Grant 10 drinker it reads at about 98% of their own, for 149% of the price. Poured at home that's $4.71 a standard drink, against $3.21 for the Glen Moray and $3.56 for the Glenlivet, and all three come in under the $6.28 a standard drink of a $13 pint at the pub.

Who it's for. If The Glen Grant 10 is already your bottle, $70 for members is a fair week to restock, and nothing here asks you to change your mind. If you want the same easy, honeyed register for about the same outlay, the Glen Moray 12 sits right alongside it. If you'd like a touch more going on in the glass and don't mind paying a little over the Glen Grant for it, the Glenlivet 12 rewards a drop of water. And if your palate already leans towards tropical fruit and marmalade, the Aberfeldy 12 is the one of this group that will feel most like home.