1/Stood at the blended-Scotch bay this Thursday and the honest bottles were all down near my knees. Twenty blends on this shelf, every one priced live at Dan Murphy's, and the ones closest to fair value are the cheap old workhorses, not the boxed ones up top.
2/Ranked here by how far each price sits over the fair value its own 360° jury gives it. Percentage, because the shelf runs from a fifty-three-dollar blend to a $240 one. Nothing on it dips below its own mean, so the hot end means "closest to fair", never a discount.
3/The fair end. Ballantine's Finest litre, $69, sitting bang on its own mean. Johnnie Walker Red litre and the 1.125L party bottle, $69 and $77, both a whisker over at around a quarter of a percent. Cutty Sark $59. McAllister litre $67, still under one percent.
4/Reads the way a big blend reads: iconic supermarket Scotch, a touch of bonfire smoke, an odd mustard-seed note in the mix. Pooled from the shelf's own reviews, region-wide, not any single bottle's. Cheap, familiar, and priced about right.
5/The cold end is where I'd slow down. Compass Box Peat Monster, $85, sits nearly 38% over its own mean — the widest gap on this shelf, better than double the next one. It's a live ticket, not a stale or corrected one. A small-batch blended malt priced like a statement.
6/Then the label tax. Johnnie Walker Blue, $240, about 15% over its own jury. Compass Box Glasgow Blend $90, near 7%. Behind them Black Ruby at $68 and Green Label at $104, both mid-single-digits over.
7/So the tidy read on the blended shelf: fair value lives at the floor, and the premium climbs with the box and the bragging rights — one small-batch blend standing well clear of the rest. Cheaper honest pour this week, Cutty Sark at $59 or Ballantine's litre at $69?
| End | Item | Price | Gap % | Priced |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hot 1 | Ballantine's Finest Blended Scotch Whisky 1L | $69 | +0.00% | observed 2026-09-10 |
| Hot 2 | Johnnie Walker Red Label Blended Scotch Whisky 1.125L | $77 | +0.27% | observed 2026-09-10 |
| Hot 3 | Johnnie Walker Red Label Blended Scotch Whisky 1L | $69 | +0.29% | observed 2026-09-10 |
| (hot) | Cutty Sark Original Blended Scotch Whisky 700mL | $59 | +0.34% | observed 2026-09-10 |
| (hot) | McAllister Scotch Whisky 1L | $67 | +0.77% | observed 2026-09-10 |
| Cold 1 | Compass Box The Peat Monster Blended Malt Scotch Whisky 700mL | $85 | +37.83% | observed 2026-09-10 |
| Cold 2 | Johnnie Walker Blue Label Blended Scotch Whisky 700mL | $240 | +15.13% | observed 2026-09-10 |
| Cold 3 | Compass Box Glasgow Blend Scotch Whisky 700mL | $90 | +6.91% | observed 2026-09-10 |
| (cold) | Johnnie Walker Black Ruby Blended Scotch Whisky 700mL | $68 | +5.76% | observed 2026-09-10 |
| (cold) | Johnnie Walker Green Label Blended Scotch Whisky 700mL | $104 | +5.44% | observed 2026-09-10 |
None recorded.
None recorded.
Whole Shelf, scope Multi-Regional Blend (region), vintage 2026-09-10.r (pack region-multi-regional-blend-aggregate.json). Gap basis PERCENTAGE — read from the aggregate as stored (its $52.99–$239.95 range clears the 2× ratio that reads as percentage). ce_gap_pct = (price − CE 360° mean)/price × 100, each bottle's premium over its own CE 360° consensus; 'hot' = smallest premium (closest to fair value), 'cold' = largest. ce_gap_pct is never negative across the catalogue, so 'hot' is not a bargain or a discount and is not written as one. 'Hot'/'cold' are value-signal labels only, never sales velocity, popularity, or trend. Coverage 20 of 20 members priced live in the 2026-09-10 harvest (100%). Sources holds the stored top/bottom notable-mover cut, not the full ranked shelf.
{
"date": "2026-09-10T00:00:00.000Z",
"title": "The blended shelf keeps its honesty near the floor, not the ceiling",
"angle": "whole-shelf",
"position": "n/a",
"status": "draft",
"derives_from": "none — replay/standalone thread; no article backing on a replayed week",
"grounded_on": "2026-09-10.r",
"may_publish": false,
"replay": true,
"review_priority": "standard",
"artefact_id": "2026-09-10-replay/whole-shelf/multi-regional-blend-region-b324b3",
"claims": [
{
"item": "Ballantine's Finest Blended Scotch Whisky 1L",
"kind": "price",
"value": 69
},
{
"item": "Ballantine's Finest Blended Scotch Whisky 1L",
"kind": "value",
"value": 0
},
{
"item": "Johnnie Walker Red Label Blended Scotch Whisky 1.125L",
"kind": "price",
"value": 77
},
{
"item": "Johnnie Walker Red Label Blended Scotch Whisky 1.125L",
"kind": "value",
"value": 0.27
},
{
"item": "Johnnie Walker Red Label Blended Scotch Whisky 1L",
"kind": "price",
"value": 69
},
{
"item": "Johnnie Walker Red Label Blended Scotch Whisky 1L",
"kind": "value",
"value": 0.29
},
{
"item": "Cutty Sark Original Blended Scotch Whisky 700mL",
"kind": "price",
"value": 59
},
{
"item": "Cutty Sark Original Blended Scotch Whisky 700mL",
"kind": "value",
"value": 0.34
},
{
"item": "McAllister Scotch Whisky 1L",
"kind": "price",
"value": 67
},
{
"item": "McAllister Scotch Whisky 1L",
"kind": "value",
"value": 0.77
},
{
"item": "Compass Box The Peat Monster Blended Malt Scotch Whisky 700mL",
"kind": "price",
"value": 85
},
{
"item": "Compass Box The Peat Monster Blended Malt Scotch Whisky 700mL",
"kind": "value",
"value": 37.83
},
{
"item": "Johnnie Walker Blue Label Blended Scotch Whisky 700mL",
"kind": "price",
"value": 240
},
{
"item": "Johnnie Walker Blue Label Blended Scotch Whisky 700mL",
"kind": "value",
"value": 15.13
},
{
"item": "Compass Box Glasgow Blend Scotch Whisky 700mL",
"kind": "price",
"value": 90
},
{
"item": "Compass Box Glasgow Blend Scotch Whisky 700mL",
"kind": "value",
"value": 6.91
},
{
"item": "Johnnie Walker Black Ruby Blended Scotch Whisky 700mL",
"kind": "price",
"value": 68
},
{
"item": "Johnnie Walker Black Ruby Blended Scotch Whisky 700mL",
"kind": "value",
"value": 5.76
},
{
"item": "Johnnie Walker Green Label Blended Scotch Whisky 700mL",
"kind": "price",
"value": 104
},
{
"item": "Johnnie Walker Green Label Blended Scotch Whisky 700mL",
"kind": "value",
"value": 5.44
}
],
"subjects": [
"Multi-Regional Blend (region)"
],
"format_note": "Whole Shelf, scope Multi-Regional Blend (region), vintage 2026-09-10.r (pack region-multi-regional-blend-aggregate.json). Gap basis PERCENTAGE — read from the aggregate as stored (its $52.99–$239.95 range clears the 2× ratio that reads as percentage). ce_gap_pct = (price − CE 360° mean)/price × 100, each bottle's premium over its own CE 360° consensus; 'hot' = smallest premium (closest to fair value), 'cold' = largest. ce_gap_pct is never negative across the catalogue, so 'hot' is not a bargain or a discount and is not written as one. 'Hot'/'cold' are value-signal labels only, never sales velocity, popularity, or trend. Coverage 20 of 20 members priced live in the 2026-09-10 harvest (100%). Sources holds the stored top/bottom notable-mover cut, not the full ranked shelf.",
"verified_at": "2026-09-27T07:08:05.000Z",
"verified_by": "etl/price_verify.py (harvest sidecar danmurphys_whisky_products_2026-09-10.normalised.csv, as of 2026-09-10)",
"verified_prices": {
"48341": 76.99,
"93472": 239.95,
"143535": 68.95,
"195485": 89.99,
"324696": 66.99,
"682824": 67.99,
"761305": 84.99,
"900934": 68.95,
"903258": 103.99,
"903929": 58.99
},
"verification_note": "10 price claim(s) verified live",
"quality_gate": "pass",
"gated_at": "2026-09-27T07:08:05.000Z",
"site_publish": true
}