Same Summer Fruit, Smaller Bill

Here it is. The Glenlivet 12 gives a Tomatin 12 drinker about 90% of what their own bottle does, and it does it for 80% of the price. Same sort of evening, most of the same pleasure, and change back in your pocket.

First, the bottle you came for. Tomatin 12 is pleasantly sweet, built on a solid malt foundation with an abundance of bright summer fruit. It's clean and straightforward, the kind of dram that doesn't ask you to think too hard. Uncomplicated, and happy to be.

Now the ones standing near it.

The Deveron 12, $90 this week and usually about $91. Soft and sweet on the nose — vanilla, ginger, ripe peaches, apple blossom — then gently spicy, with butterscotch and Brazil nuts. To a Tomatin 12 drinker it gives about 98% of what the Tomatin does, for 92% of its price.

Dalwhinnie 15, $95, which is about what it usually sells for, though we've seen it climb to $129. Deep honeyed sweetness, caramelised fruits, a touch of thick cream and sharp citrus, chunky and gentle through the middle. To a Tomatin 12 drinker it gives about 97% of what the Tomatin does, for 97% of its price.

Deanston 12, $97 for members, where it usually sells around $112. Orange marmalade, shortbread dipped in honey, ginger and cinnamon, then salted caramel and milk chocolate on a soft palate. To a Tomatin 12 drinker it gives about 97% of what the Tomatin does, for 99% of its price.

What to pay for the Tomatin itself. It's $98 this week. It usually sells around $90, and we've seen it between $90 and $98, so this week sits at the top of that short span. Poured at home that's about $4.13 a standard drink, against roughly $6.28 for a standard drink at the pub, where a pint runs about $13. The night in is the quieter cost either way.

Here's the part people skip over. Ask the drinker of the bottle sitting closest to Tomatin 12 what they'd give for it — starting from what they already pay for their own — and their figure lands right alongside its price. Widen that out across all the nearest bottles and the answers run from $77 to $109. At $98, Tomatin 12 sits inside what those drinkers would pay, each working from their own bottle up. That's the one time those cross-aisle figures mean anything, and that's all they say.

So, who's it for?

If Tomatin 12 is already your bottle: nothing's changed. It's still the clean, fruity, easy pour you reach for, and $98 is this week's number. Buy it and enjoy it.

If you drink The Deveron 12: you're getting nearly all of the Tomatin for a touch less, with a bit more spice and butterscotch in the glass. An easy yes.

If Dalwhinnie 15 is your usual: you already live in the same honeyed, gentle country as Tomatin, and at $95 you're paying much the same. Either will do you proud.

If you reach for Deanston 12: the marmalade-and-honey side of it sits right beside Tomatin's bright fruit, and the prices are all but level. Pick on mood.

And if you just want the cheapest way into this style tonight, the point still holds: The Glenlivet 12 gives you about 90% of the Tomatin for 80% of the price. Ninety per cent of something you like, with money left over, is plenty.