1/A friend handed me a glass at his kitchen bench, no label in sight, and asked me to guess. I couldn't place it against anything else I'd poured that night. That's Oban 14: it stands a little apart from the bottles sitting near it, and tastes like almost none of them.
2/Pour it slow and the nose comes up floral and honeyed, toffee and cereal, a wisp of smoke, a breath of the sea. The palate is rich and busy: citrus, more cereal, seaweed, peat, oak. The finish runs long, toffee and new leather, spice that won't quit.
3/Ask the drinkers of the bottles nearest Oban 14 what it's worth to them, each starting from what they pay for their own, and the answers run from $80 to $130. At $165 it sits above all of them. It's priced for its fans.
4/This week at Dan Murphy's it's $165. That works out to about 24 pours in the bottle, close to $6.95 a nip — what a glass costs you at your own bench. Set beside the bottles near it, it sits higher, and makes no secret of 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.
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.
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.
| bottle | region | latest ticket | read | window price | CE 360° mean | premium | shelf rank | per std drink | drink rank | content |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oban 14 Year Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky | Highlands | $164.99 | observed | $135.00 | $119.88 | 11.2% | #16 of 38 | $6.95 | #27 of 36 | 4 |
| Oban Little Bay Single Malt Scotch Whisky | Highlands | $159.99 | observed | $159.99 | $128.29 | 19.8% | #28 of 38 | $6.32 | #24 of 36 | 2 |