Lagavulin 16: what $160 buys on Islay

Here's the curious thing about it. Among the whiskies at Dan Murphy's, its critics' rating sits in the top 7%. For how broadly drinkers like it, it sits in the bottom 32%. The people who score whisky and the people who sip it don't quite meet on this one.

So what would the drinkers of the bottles nearest it pay for Lagavulin 16, each starting from what they already pay for their own? Across those bottles the answers run from $89 to $168, and at $160 this week it lands inside that range. Take the Bunnahabhain 12 drinker: they'd put about $109 on it, 85% of what their own bottle costs them, easing it back for being older than theirs and for the sherry and dried fruit. Turn it the other way and a Lagavulin 16 drinker values Bunnahabhain 12 at about 84% of their own bottle, for the mirror reasons: younger than theirs, and again the sherry and dried fruit.

As for the glass itself, Lagavulin 16 has been the distillery's principal expression for more than thirty years. The nose opens on iodine and rich peat with caramel, then sherry, sea salt and charcuterie. The palate is oily and briny: peat and a medicinal note, black tea, Seville orange, toffee, a touch of cinnamon, a hint of smoked fish. The finish is long and spicy, all peat embers and hot tar. A deep, serious dram.

A pour works out around $6.74 a standard drink, with about 24 in the bottle. A pint at the pub runs about $6.28 a standard drink. This is the one here that sits a little over the pint, which is worth knowing and no more than that.

Three bottles stand in, each weighed by what a Lagavulin 16 drinker would get from it:

Caol Ila 12, $99 this week. Fish and bacon off a beach barbecue, a squeeze of lemon, a lick of allspice, then peppery peat on the finish. It gives a Lagavulin 16 drinker about 89% of what the Lagavulin does, for 62% of its price.

Bowmore 12, $95 this week, and it usually sells around $110. Tropical fruit, sweet smoke, a hint of brine and new leather, then peaches, honey and cocoa. About 88% of the Lagavulin, for 59% of its price.

Bunnahabhain 12, $128 this week. Sea salt, tangerines, a light smoke, vanilla and sultanas on an oily palate. About 84% of the Lagavulin, for 80% of its price.

So who's it for? If Lagavulin 16 is already your bottle, $160 is this week's price and the glass is the one you know: big peat, sea salt, that long smoky close. If you lean sweeter and lighter, Bunnahabhain 12 is the gentler islander. If you want the smoke and barbecue for a smaller outlay, Caol Ila 12 holds them at 62% of the price. And if you're new to Islay and want one bottle that shows what it does, Bowmore 12 is the easy way in, tropical and smoky at once.

Four roads onto the one island, then, and a yes waiting on each.