1/What are you paying for in a bottle of Royal Salute 21? Price its age, name, sherry and strength the way the rest of Dan Murphy's whisky is priced, and you land on $260. That's the going rate. This week it sells at $210, about 19% under it.
2/What makes up that $260? Age is the biggest part at 46%, then the name on the label at 33%, sherry and dried fruit at 15%, strength at 5%. In the glass that reads as masses of orchard fruit, a rounded, supple oak, thick and chewy with a little nut on the finish.
3/Its own drinker weights those same features differently. For them it's mostly age at 66%, then sherry and dried fruit at 17%, the name on the label at 15%. The going rate leans harder on the name; the drinker leans harder on the years in the cask.
4/Johnnie Walker 18 sells at $179 this week and gives a Royal Salute 21 drinker about 91% of what they value: woodsmoke, baked apples, honey, a catch of smoke on the finish. If age is the draw, Royal Salute 21 at $210. If you want most of it for less, this.
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