Laphroaig's Quarter Cask is usually one of Islay's great-value drams. On the shelf this week it is the opposite.
Three Laphroaigs are on the shelf, and all three sit over their flavour-crowd, the ten whiskies the model rates nearest each on taste. For a peat name this beloved, a premium is the expected thing. What is not expected is the spread. The entry-level Select Cask sits only a little over its crowd. The 10-year sits modestly over. And the Quarter Cask, normally the sweet spot of the range, sits more than twice over its crowd this week. The order of value is almost upside down from how the range is usually shopped.
Begin with the Select Cask, because it is the quiet winner here. It is the gentlest Laphroaig, a softer, more approachable take on the house style: peat smoke and iodine still present, but eased back, with a soft ashy finish rather than a punch in the mouth. It is the bottle to hand someone who thinks they do not like Islay. At $84 against a crowd of $72 it sits about $12 over, roughly 17%, the smallest gap of the three by a wide margin. For an everyday Laphroaig that still tastes unmistakably of the distillery, it is the sensible buy this week.
1/Both reviews land on peat. If Laphroaig 10 is your bottle, the one that tastes most like it is Caol Ila 12: it gives a Laphroaig 10 drinker about 82% of what the Laphroaig 10 does, for $29 more.
2/Pour the Laphroaig 10 and it's brine-laden peat, iodine, charcoal and sticking plaster. The Caol Ila 12 goes gentler: fish and bacon with a squeeze of lemon at a beach barbecue, a lift of allspice. Peat runs through both reviews.
3/This week the Laphroaig 10 is $109 and the Caol Ila 12 is $138 at Dan Murphy's. That's $4.93 a pour at home against $5.81, both under a pint at the pub. Stay with the Laphroaig 10 if it's your bottle; reach for the Caol Ila 12 when you want a change.
Ardbeg Wee Beastie: wood smoke and sea breeze, black pepper, then milk chocolate raisins and vanilla. Peaty, punchy, oily, with a long smoky finish. $92 this week; it usually sells around $106. A young Islay with teeth. Love peat? This one's for you. More in this week's piece.
I love handing a Laphroaig 10 drinker an Ardbeg Wee Beastie. They'd pay about $68 for it, roughly 62% of what their own bottle costs them, docking it a little for the extra strength. A yes either way, really. More on the Beastie in this week's piece.
A dram of Ardbeg Wee Beastie after the plates are cleared, and the sums are the small ones: about 26 drinks to the bottle, which comes to $3.51 a pour at home. A pint at the pub runs closer to $6.28 for the same measure. The tasting is in this week's piece.
Ardbeg Wee Beastie is $92 at Dan Murphy's this week. It usually sells around $106, so you're catching it below the usual. If you like your Islay loud, peat, smoke and sea air, this one's for you. At about $3.51 a pour it's easy to keep on the bench. More in this week's piece.
Both are Islay single malts built on peat, and they sit side by side nicely. Ardbeg Wee Beastie, $92, brings wood smoke, black pepper and a sea breeze, with milk chocolate raisins and vanilla behind it; Laphroaig Select Cask, $75 for members, is the calmer, sweeter one, gentle peat smoke, iodine and damp earth wrapped in vanilla. Together they come to $167 at Dan Murphy's for members this week, against $181 at their usual prices, and $183 for the same two at Liquorland this week. At home that's a smoky pour for well under a pint.
Lagavulin 8 is light in colour but no wimp: the nose heads straight to the shore, mineral and salt, then turns sweet and lively. Menthol, bay laurel, brine, a touch of Parma violet. Peat smoke blown off a kiln into salt air. $113 at Dan Murphy's. More in this week's piece.
If Lagavulin 8 is your dram, Ardbeg Wee Beastie, $92, gives a Lagavulin 8 drinker about 92% of what the Lagavulin 8 does for 81% of the price, all wood smoke, sea breeze and black pepper, with more on the Lagavulin 8 in this week's piece.
Hand a Caol Ila 12 drinker a Lagavulin 8 and they'd pay 59% of what their own bottle costs, marking it down for being the younger pour. Still an easy yes for anyone who loves salt, shore and peat smoke. Where would it sit for you? More in this week's piece on Lagavulin 8.
At $4.26 a standard drink, a pour of Lagavulin 8 at home sits under the $6.28 a pint costs at the pub. The $113 bottle holds about 27 standard drinks, 161st of 310 at Dan Murphy's by price per drink. Where does that leave you? More in this week's piece on Lagavulin 8.
Like Lagavulin 8? Laphroaig 10 gives a Lagavulin 8 drinker about 80% of the same pour, for 96% of the price — and it's $109. Brine, iodine, charcoal, a sweet oak finish. The rest sits in this week's piece on Lagavulin 8.
Bowmore 12 opens gently: tropical fruit and sweet smoke, a hint of brine and new leather beneath. Peaches, honey and vanilla fill the palate, then cocoa powder and citrus trail into woodsmoke. $95 for members at Dan's, with more in this week's piece. Which note pulls you first?
Ask an Ardbeg 10 drinker what they'd give for a Bowmore 12 and I reckon it lands at 88% of what their own bottle costs them, nudged down a touch for the lighter strength. I've set out where it sits with the neighbours in this week's piece.
Peaches, honey, a curl of smoke: that's Bowmore 12. It works out at $4.30 a standard drink poured at home, against $6.28 for one in a pint at the pub. Where would you rather take it? More on Bowmore 12 in this week's piece.
Peaches and honey on the Bowmore 12, then a curl of sweet smoke. It's $95 for members this week, and it usually sells around $110. More on it in this week's piece.
Caol Ila 12 costs $2 more a bottle than Laphroaig 10, yet at 43% against 40% it's the cheaper drink: $4.17 a standard drink against $4.39. Stand the neighbours alongside and Bowmore 12 slots between the two at $4.30, Ardbeg 10 sits a little beyond at $4.76, and Lagavulin 11 Sweet Peat keeps its own company at $6.95. A pint at the pub runs about $13, near enough two standard drinks, so around $6.28 each. Caol Ila, Bowmore, Ardbeg and Laphroaig all pour for less than that at home; the Lagavulin asks a little more.
This is a price guide for Smokehead Islay and the three Islay single malts that sit closest to it: what each usually sells for, the range seen, and where this week's price lands against it. The numbers lead; the drams come after.
A price guide for Smokehead Islay and its two closest like-for-like bottles, Laphroaig Select Cask and Glen Moray Peated. All three are young, peated single malts in much the same bracket. Here's what each usually sells for, the range we've seen, and where this week falls against it.
What are you paying for in a bottle of Laphroaig 10? Price its name, age, style and strength the way the rest of the whisky at Dan Murphy's is priced, and you land near $121. This week it's $97 for members, about 20% under that going rate.
Who drinks this?
A price guide for Laphroaig Select Cask and the two single malts closest to it, Smokehead Islay and Glen Moray Peated. For each one: what it usually sells for, the range we've seen, and what a standard drink costs this week. Three peated bottles, read side by side.
Two of Islay's benchmark malts are both at their own floor this week at Dan Murphy's. Laphroaig 10 is $97. Ardbeg An Oa is $75. Neither has been cheaper across the eight weeks I've been tracking them.
Ardbeg Wee Beastie is $92 this week, and from what we have seen it usually sells around $106, which puts it about as low as we have ever found it sitting in a Dan Murphy's cabinet.
A mate tips a finger of Lagavulin 8 into your glass at his kitchen bench, says nothing, and waits. You've had the 16. You've not had this one. It's pale in the glass, so you brace for something thin, and then it isn't thin at all.
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.
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?
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.
Bowmore 12 is $95 for members at Dan Murphy's this week. It usually sells around $110, so this is about as low as we've seen it. If this is a bottle you keep an eye on, that's the whole story in a line.
Laphroaig's best-known bottle turns out to be its best-value one this week. That is not where the badge tells you to look.
Here is the bottle you would bet against finding value in: the one on every best-of-Islay list, the benchmark peated malt, the name people use as shorthand for medicinal smoke. And this week it is the buy.
Big peated Islay malts almost never come in under what their rivals charge. Two of Laphroaig's do this week, and they are the two most people should be buying anyway.
| bottle | region | latest ticket | read | window price | CE 360° mean | premium | shelf rank | per std drink | drink rank | content |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Laphroaig 10 Year Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky | Islay | $108.85 | observed | $97.00 | $86.43 | 10.9% | #5 of 16 | $4.93 | #12 of 16 | 25 |
| Laphroaig Quarter Cask Scotch Whisky | Islay | $169.99 | observed | $169.99 | $141.44 | 16.8% | #12 of 16 | $4.72 | #10 of 16 | 2 |
| Laphroaig Select Cask Scotch Whisky | Islay | $83.99 | observed | $75.00 | $65.74 | 12.3% | #8 of 16 | $3.39 | #2 of 16 | 6 |