Bunnahabhain 12: the salted Islay that travels one way
Start with the price, because it sets the frame. This week Bunnahabhain 12 is **$99 for members** at Dan Murphy's, and it usually sells around that. Across about 26 pours in the bottle that works out at $3.87 a standard drink, so a glass at home sits under a $13 pint at the pub ($6.28 a standard drink). The price guide below puts it against the bottles closest to it.
Now the odd thing about this one. Give a Bunnahabhain 12 drinker a Tamdhu 12 and they get about 93% of what they like. But a Tamdhu 12 drinker, handed a Bunnahabhain 12 the other way, would pay only 72% of what their own bottle costs, marking it down mostly for the name on the label. The swap runs one way.
1/Age is the biggest slice of what sets a whisky's price, and for Bunnahabhain 12 it makes up 46% of the going rate. Price its age, strength, name and style like the rest of the range at Dan Murphy's and you reach $129. This week it's $99 for members, about 23% under.
2/That $129 comes in parts. Age carries 46% of it, strength the next 27%, the sherry and dried fruit 16%, and being a single malt the last 11%. Four features, priced the way the range prices them, and together they set the rate.
3/What that price can't see is the smoke and the sea. The nose brings sea salt and tangerine with a light smokiness; the palate is oily, salt and drying smoke lingering in the finish. None of the four priced features puts a figure on that, and it's where this one is strongest.
4/For $150 this week, Lagavulin 16 gives a Bunnahabhain 12 drinker about 86% of what the Bunna does; more is not always more. A Bunna pour is $3.87 a standard drink, under a pub pint's $6.28. Peat and tar are the Lagavulin's; fresh salt and light smoke, the Bunna's, at $99.
The bottlesThe Bunnahabhain desk
Also from the Bunnahabhain desk
Bunnahabhain 12: neighbours' price
Bunnahabhain 12 and its nearest neighbour, Tamdhu 12, both lean on sherry casks. Hand a Tamdhu 12 drinker a Bunnahabhain 12 and they'd put it at 72% of what their own bottle costs. Plenty to like either way. More on the Bunnahabhain 12 in this week's piece.
Bunnahabhain 12: per drink
I poured the Bunnahabhain 12 and there it was: sea salt, a little tangerine, smoke drifting off at the end. At $99 that's $3.87 a standard drink, about 26 to the bottle. A pint runs about $6.28 a standard drink; a quieter pour at home. More in this week's piece.
Lagavulin 16: price per drink
Friday night, two Islay bottles on the bench look almost twins. Caol Ila 12 is $99 this week, Bowmore 12 is $95. So Caol Ila costs $4 more a bottle. But at 43% against 40% it's the cheaper drink: $4.17 a standard drink against $4.30. Per standard drink: Bowmore 12 $4.30, Caol Ila 12 $4.17, Bunnahabhain 12 $5.01, Lagavulin 16 $6.74, Lagavulin 11 Sweet Peat $6.95. A pint at the pub is about $13, near two standard drinks, so $6.28 each. Bowmore, Caol Ila and Bunnahabhain come in under; the two Lagavulins sit over. Pick by taste. The price per pour won't trip you up.
Lagavulin 16: tasting
Lagavulin 16: iodine, rich peat and a little caramel up front, then an oily, briny palate that turns medicinal before the embers and hot tar settle into a long finish. It's $160, the kind of pour that hangs about like woodsmoke on your coat. More on it in this week's piece.
Lagavulin 16: stand-in 1
It's Friday, the kettle's off and you want something with smoke. Love Lagavulin 16? Caol Ila 12 gives you about 89% of what it does, at 62% of the price, $99 for members. Fish wrapped in bacon off a beach barbecue, a squeeze of lemon. More in this week's piece. Fancy a pour?
Lagavulin 16: neighbours' price
Hand a Bunnahabhain 12 drinker a Lagavulin 16 and they'd put 85% of their own bottle's price on it — docked a touch for the extra years. The neighbours' price, in this week's piece: what the nearest drinkers would pay, each from their own pour. Where would you land?
Lagavulin 16: per drink
Lagavulin 16 is $160, about 24 standard drinks in the bottle, so $6.74 a pour at home. A pint at the pub works out to $6.28 a drink, so it sits just over that. If you love rich peat and a long, spicy finish, it rewards a slow pour. More in this week's piece.
Lagavulin 16: stand-in 2
Love Lagavulin 16? Bowmore 12 gives a Lagavulin 16 drinker about 88% of what it does, for 59% of the price, $95 for members. Tropical fruit and sweet smoke on the nose, honey and fuller smoke on the palate, cocoa and fading woodsmoke to close. More in this week's piece.
Lagavulin 16: stand-in 3
If you love Lagavulin 16, I'd happily pour you a Bunnahabhain 12: at $128 it gives a Lagavulin 16 drinker about 84% of what the Lagavulin 16 does, for 80% of its price, all sea salt and tangerines and gentle smoke. More on Lagavulin 16 in this week's piece.
Tastes like Bunnahabhain 12
If Bunnahabhain 12 is your bottle, the one that tastes nearest to it at Dan Murphy's is Tamdhu 12. Nearest two ways: the words in their reviews, and what drinkers reach for. Tamdhu 12 gives a Bunnahabhain 12 drinker about 97% of what it does, for 77% of the price.
Bunnahabhain 12: the everyday stand-in for Tamdhu 15
I keep a bottle of Tamdhu 15 about, around $202, and I love it. Here's the thing I tell mates who do too: a Bunnahabhain 12 gives me about 87% of what the Tamdhu pours, for 63% of the price.
Per standard drink: the whole list at Dan Murphy's, cheapest first
310 bottles at Dan Murphy's can be priced per standard drink this week. Cheapest first: Grant's Triple Wood 1 litre at $1.99 a standard drink; the median is $4.16; Dalmore 21 Malt is the highest at $42.68. 235 of the 310 come in under a pint at the pub, which works out at $6.28 a standard drink.
The price that can't see the smoke
What should a bottle of Lagavulin 16 cost? It has been the distillery's main bottling for more than 30 years, an Islay malt built on peat and sea air. So the question is a fair one to put plainly: what are you paying for, and how does $160 sit next to the bottles around it?
Per standard drink: the whole list at Dan Murphy's, cheapest first
305 bottles at Dan Murphy's can be priced per standard drink this week. Cheapest first: McAllister 1 litre at $2.00 a standard drink; the median is $4.03; Dalmore 21 Malt is the highest at $42.68. 228 of the 305 come in under a pint at the pub, which works out at $6.28 a standard drink.
Lagavulin 16: what $160 buys on Islay
Lagavulin 16 is $160 at Dan Murphy's this week. That's the figure to hold while everything else falls into place.
Bunnahabhain's two Islay malts both sit above their crowd
Bunnahabhain is the Islay distillery for people who do not want to be hit over the head. Soft, sherried, salt-touched rather than smoke-drenched. This week it has two bottles on the shelf, and both ask a clear premium over the drams they stand beside.
Bunnahabhain's 12 is the fairer pour; the no-age asks more
Bunnahabhain is the Islay malt that barely smokes, the coastal, sherried one that trades on texture and sea air instead of a bonfire. Two of its bottles are on the shelf this week, and the one wearing an age on the label is the one priced closer to fair.
Both Bunnahabhains ask well over their neighbours
Bunnahabhain is the quiet Islay, the one that leans on sea air and sherry rather than a wall of smoke. This week both its bottles are priced like the loud ones.
Bunnahabhain 12 is fair only at the member price
Bunnahabhain is the Islay you drink when you want the island without the argument. Peat, but folded into sherry and chocolate rather than fired straight at you.
The numbers behind these bottles
| bottle | region | latest ticket | read | window price | CE 360° mean | premium | shelf rank | per std drink | drink rank | content |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bunnahabhain 12 | Islay | $127.99 | observed | $127.99 | $103.15 | 19.4% | #15 of 16 | $3.87 | #6 of 16 | 18 |
| Bunnahabhain Stiuireadair Whisky | Islay | $114.99 | observed | $94.00 | $72.10 | 23.3% | #16 of 16 | $4.50 | #9 of 16 | 2 |