A Speysider that gets along with everyone

Here's the thing worth knowing. Out of all the bottles we look at, Glen Moray 12 sits in the top 16% for how broadly it's liked. Not the most adored by a devoted few, but the one the most feet seem to fit. If you were pouring for a room that didn't all drink the same way, this is the bottle that tends to keep the room happy.

It earns that the honest way. Matured in bourbon casks, it opens sweet and welcoming on the nose: honey, icing sugar, toffee bonbons, a twist of orange peel. The palate is medium-bodied, barley sugar and soft oak with nectarine and lychee sitting underneath. Vanilla carries the finish, honey comes back for a last word, and it's gone at a medium length. Nothing shows off. That's rather the point of it.

So who else does this job, and what do they ask? Three bottles live close to it.

The Glenlivet 12, $79, usually around that too. Lily and orchid, pineapple, a creaminess that beds the lighter notes down, mandarin and a sneeze of white pepper with water. To a Glen Moray 12 drinker it gives about 100% of what their own bottle gives.

The Glen Grant 10, $70 for members, usually around $76. Light and floral for a Speysider, honeyed vanilla with a hint of marshmallow and hay, a soft dry finish. A good clean introductory malt, and to a Glen Moray 12 drinker it gives about 99% of what the Glen Moray does, for about what you'd pay anyway.

Aberfeldy 12, $104. Fresh and floral, lively tropical fruit, honey and vanilla, an orange marmalade finish with a hint of spice. Gentle, easy-going. To a Glen Moray 12 drinker it gives about 99% of its bottle, though it asks the most of the four.

How alike they are is the striking bit. Four bottles, the same ballpark of pleasure, and the prices doing most of the talking.

As for what to pay: Glen Moray 12 is $71 for members at Dan Murphy's this week. It usually sells around $75, and we've seen it between $71 and $79. So this week sits at the friendly end of its own range. Put another way, that's about $3.21 a standard drink poured at home — a pint at the pub runs about $6.28 a standard drink, roughly double.

Now the other way of valuing it. Ask the drinkers of the bottles nearest Glen Moray 12 what it's worth to them, each starting from what they pay for their own, and the answers run from $68 to $94. The Glenlivet 12 drinker, paying $79 for a bottle that does about the same thing, would happily pay a touch over the odds for the Glen Moray. And someone whose regular pour is The Glen Grant 10 at around $76? For them the Glen Moray lands almost on the same number. Across all the nearest bottles that spread of $68 to $94 is the window, and $71 for members falls inside it — comfortably inside what the drinkers of the bottles closest to it would pay.

Who's it for, then? If Glen Moray 12 is already your bottle, there's nothing to fix: $71 for members is a kind week to restock. If you drink The Glenlivet 12, you'll find the same easy sweetness here for a few dollars less. If The Glen Grant 10 is your introductory pour, the Glen Moray is the near-twin at the near-same price, so take whichever one's going. And if you've been drinking Aberfeldy 12, the Glen Moray gives you most of that fresh, honeyed character and keeps the change.

For a mate who just wants something nice on a Friday, this is the one that almost always lands.