**What to pay**
The Glendronach 12 is $110 at Dan Murphy's this week. It usually sells around $119, so this week it sits a touch under its usual mark.
The point
1/The Glendronach 12 keeps its sherry held back rather than piled on, which is where this distillery seems at its happiest. Twelve years old, and $110 this week at Dan Murphy's. It usually sells around $119.
2/If the Glenfarclas 15 is your pour, here is the shape of it: the Glendronach 12 gives you about 95% of what the Glenfarclas 15 gives, for 59% of its price. Nearly all the dram, for well under the price.
3/What does a Glenfarclas 15 drinker give up to get there? Mostly three years of age and some strength. That is the trade, set out plainly, with nothing hidden in it.
4/So a yes for each. The Glenfarclas 15, $185, stays the one for its fans: dried fruits, toffee, a little leather, a slice of Christmas cake. The Glendronach 12 is the one for every other night.
Hand The Glendronach 12 to drinkers of its nearest bottles and they'd pay $90 to $248 for it, each from what their own bottle costs. The closest, a Glenfarclas 15 drinker, lands at $125, 68% of their own. It's $110 this week. More in this week's piece. Where would you sit?
The Glendronach 12 is $110 at Dan Murphy's this week. It usually sells around $119, so a few dollars under its regular mark as you pour one. Where it sits against the neighbours is in this week's piece.
Friday night, two bottles out on the bench and no one able to pick a favourite. The Glendronach 12, $110: a sherried Highland malt that's at its best when the sherry doesn't crowd it out, and this one lets the spirit through. Glenfiddich 18, $175: oak and fresh apple, barley and cereal, dried fruit and a touch of toffee, Christmas-pudding sweetness and a warm cinnamon finish, about $7.92 a pour at home. Two malts cut from close cloth. This week at Dan Murphy's the pair comes to $285; usually they're $294, and the same two are $328 at Liquorland this week. Which would you reach for first?
Glenfarclas 15: Christmas cake in a glass. Dried fruit, toffee, a hint of leather, warming spice. Full-bodied and smooth, non-chill filtered. This week it's $185 at Dan Murphy's. The whole story's in this week's piece.
If you love Glenfarclas 15, I'd happily pour you a Tamdhu 12. At $126 it's about 68% of the Glenfarclas price, and for a Glenfarclas 15 drinker it gives you about 88% of what you already enjoy, with citrus, hazelnut and dry sherry. More on Glenfarclas 15 in this week's piece.
Hand a Tamdhu 12 drinker a Glenfarclas 15 and they'd pay about $87 for it, 69% of what their own bottle costs them. The sherry and dried fruit sit close enough to home. Who it suits: a sherried-malt drinker. More in this week's piece on the Glenfarclas 15.
Glenfarclas 15, all dried fruit and Christmas cake, is $7.28 a standard drink poured at home — the kind of pour you sit with rather than rush. This week's piece has the rest.
Like Glenfarclas 15? Aberlour 14 pours jammy peaches, marzipan and vanilla, then slips into milk chocolate and a whisper of coffee. For a Glenfarclas 15 drinker it gives about 88% of the ride at 76% of the price, $140 for members. More in this week's piece.
Back on sale after three years away, The GlenDronach 15 Revival is a full sherry dram: ripe cherries and marzipan on the nose, then spicy damsons and dark chocolate into a long finish of cloves and blackcurrants. $176 at Dan Murphy's. More in this week's piece.
If you like The GlenDronach 15 Revival, The Glendronach 12 gives you about 96% of what it does for 68% of the price, landing at $119, and that sherried thread runs through both, which is really what I get into in this week's piece on the Revival.
Here's the one that stuck with me: an Edradour 10 drinker, handed The GlenDronach 15 Revival, would pay 77% of what their own bottle costs them. Not the whole way, but close. What would you give for a neighbour's dram? More in this week's piece.
The GlenDronach 15 Revival, back after three years away: ripe cherries, dark chocolate, a long clove finish. $176 over about 25 standard drinks is $6.93 a pour at home, just over the $6.28 a standard drink of a $13 pint. More in this week's piece.
The GlenDronach 15 Revival is $176 at Dan Murphy's this week, and it usually sells around $176. Nose of sherry, cherries and marzipan; a palate of spicy damsons and dark chocolate; a long finish of cloves and blackcurrants. More in this week's piece. Your kind of dram?
Love The GlenDronach 15 Revival? The Glenfarclas 15 gives its drinkers about 94% of what the Revival does, and at $130 that is 74% of its price, with dried fruit, toffee and a touch of leather over a full, smooth palate. The full tasting sits in this week's piece. Fancy a pour?
Glengoyne 18, matured with a generous share of first-fill sherry: milk chocolate, vanilla and melon on the nose, then cinnamon, ginger, almonds and orange marmalade, the spices lingering over easy-going oak. $276. More on it in this week's piece.
Like Glengoyne 18? The GlenDronach 15 Revival gives a Glengoyne 18 drinker about 91% of it, for 64% of the price. $176 the bottle. Ripe cherries, walnuts, dark chocolate. More on the Glengoyne 18 in this week's piece.
Milk chocolate and vanilla on the nose, orange marmalade and cinnamon on the palate, spices lingering in the finish: that's Glengoyne 18. Hand it to a Glenfarclas 25 drinker and they'd pay 77% of their own bottle, docking it for the younger age. More in this week's piece.
I did the sums on the Glengoyne 18 this week: $276 a bottle, about 24 standard drinks in it, which lands a pour at home at $11.62. Plenty of whisky hiding behind that number. I've put it beside its neighbours in this week's piece if you want to see where it sits.
Glengoyne 18 is $276 at Dan Murphy's this week. It usually sells around $276, and we've seen it as low as $220. About $11.62 a pour at home, for the night you want rich sherry and easy oak with no rush. More on who it suits in this week's piece.
I noticed the Glengoyne 15 again this week. For a Glengoyne 18 drinker it gives about 90% of what the 18 does — the sherry, the vanilla, a lively ginger — at 59% of its price, so $162. The 18 itself gets its own turn in this week's piece.
Glenfarclas 15, $130. The nose is deep and aromatic: dried fruits, toffee, a whisper of leather. Full and smooth across the palate, all Christmas cake, raisins and roast oak, with the warming spices lingering. My favourite sort of sherry dram. More in this week's piece.
Like Glenfarclas 15? The Glendronach 12, $119, gives a Glenfarclas 15 drinker about 97% of what it does, for 92% of the price. Sherry, without being ruled by it. More on Glenfarclas 15 in this week's piece. Worth a swap?
I handed a Glengoyne 21 drinker a Glenfarclas 15 this week — dried fruit, toffee, a little leather. Starting from what they pay for their own, they'd put it at 77% of that. Still a clear yes for them. Where would you sit on it? More in this week's piece on Glenfarclas 15.
Weighing up a bottle? Glenfarclas 15 comes to $5.12 a standard drink poured at home, next to about $6.28 a standard drink for a pint at the pub, and that's roughly 25 pours in the bottle. More on Glenfarclas 15 in this week's piece.
The Glenfarclas 15 sits at $130 at Dan Murphy's this week, which is right where it usually sells, around $130. A steady, dried-fruit-and-toffee sherry dram holding its familiar line. Where it lands against its neighbours, and who each pour suits, is all in this week's piece.
Tamdhu 15 opens on molasses and orange peel with a prickly edge of oak, then turns supple and sweet: icing sugar, Turkish Delight, fruitcake and toffee, before cinnamon, dark chocolate and drying cloves on a long finish. $202 at Dan Murphy's. More in this week's piece.
The GlenDronach 15 Revival, $176. Pour one tonight and you're drinking what a Tamdhu 15 drinker reaches for: ripe cherries, walnuts, dark chocolate. It gives that drinker all of what the Tamdhu 15 does, 100%, for 87% of the price. More on the Tamdhu 15 in this week's piece.
Hand a Glengoyne 21 drinker the Tamdhu 15, all molasses and dark chocolate, and they'd pay 77% of what their own bottle costs, marked down mostly for the younger age. Which way would you lean? This week's piece has the rest.
At home a pour of Tamdhu 15 runs $7.95 a standard drink, a touch over a $13 pint at the pub at about $6.28 a drink; for the sherry drinker after molasses and dark chocolate across roughly 25 drinks in the bottle, that's where it lands. More in this week's piece on Tamdhu 15.
Like what Tamdhu 15 does? Glenfarclas 15 gives a Tamdhu 15 drinker 100% of it, for 64% of the price, at $130. Dried fruits, toffee, a little leather. More on Tamdhu 15 in this week's piece.
| bottle | region | latest ticket | read | window price | CE 360° mean | premium | shelf rank | per std drink | drink rank | content |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The GlenDronach 15 Year Old Revival Whisky | Highlands | $175.99 | observed | $175.99 | $148.35 | 15.7% | #23 of 38 | $6.93 | #26 of 36 | 39 |
| The Glendronach 12YO Single Malt Scotch Whisky | Highlands | $109.99 | observed | $118.99 | $101.19 | 15.0% | #22 of 38 | $4.63 | #15 of 36 | 37 |