From the Barrel is the only Nikka under its room

Five Nikkas carry a finding, and the brand midpoint is $100. Of the five, exactly one sits below the whiskies the model rates as its flavour company, and it is the one the bartenders already love. Everything else on the Nikka shelf runs over its neighbourhood, some of it by a lot. That is the shape to carry into the shop, because the dearest bottle here is not the best buy, and the cheapest is not a compromise.

From The Barrel is the bottle. At $77 it reads about 37% under the roughly $123 its flavour neighbours cost, the only Nikka this week priced below its company. It is a 500mL bottle, so some of that friendly ticket is simply the smaller format, but even allowing for size it is the one that looks like sense. And it drinks far bigger than its price: soft and sweet, butterscotch and candied orange peel, a dried-fruit depth and a curl of pipe tobacco on the finish. For a blend bottled at strength it is remarkably easy, and it is the single most reliable recommendation in the whole Japanese section.

Above it, the two single malts. Miyagikyo at $136 runs about 37% over the roughly $99 its neighbours fetch, and it is the gentle one: apple and pear, a little banana, lemon and clean barley, the soft Sendai style that wins people who think they do not like whisky. Yoichi, also $136, runs wider, about 60% over the roughly $85 its company costs, and it is the opposite temperament: coastal and faintly smoky, sea-salt and brine, nutmeg and dried orange, the muscular dram the Hokkaido distillery is known for. Both are lovely. Both also ask a clear premium over the bottles the model counts as their nearest kin, which is the Japanese tax in plain sight.

The two Coffey whiskies, made on Nikka's continuous Coffey stills, are where the premium gets steepest. The Coffey Grain at $135 is about 36% over the roughly $99 its neighbours cost, and it is the crowd-pleaser of the pair: sweet and crisp, properly nutty, ripe banana and peach over a creamy body, the softest introduction to grain whisky you will find. Its sibling, the Coffey Malt at $142, carries the same nutty, orchard-sweet signature but asks the widest gap of all five, about 71% over the roughly $83 its company fetches. Same family of flavour, a good deal more money, and the clearest example on this shelf of paying for the name on the label rather than a change in the glass.

Line the five up and the lesson is consistent. The single malts and the Coffey bottles are fine whiskies carrying a Japanese premium of between a third and three-quarters over their flavour company, which is simply what Japanese whisky costs in Australia now. From The Barrel ducks that entirely and still outperforms most of what sits above it. If the premium bottles are the ones you display, the little blend is the one you actually finish.

So, buying. For almost everyone, From The Barrel at $77 is the answer and the argument is over: the most whisky-for-money on the Nikka shelf, below its company rather than above it, and the bottle a bar would hand you if you asked them to choose. If you want a single malt and a soft, fruity evening, Miyagikyo at $136 is the gentler pick; if you want salt, smoke and backbone, Yoichi at the same price is the one, and the wider gap buys a genuinely bigger whisky. The Coffey Grain at $135 is a delightful, nutty curiosity worth it if grain whisky intrigues you. The one to think twice about is the Coffey Malt at $142: a good dram, but the dearest bottle here against its company and the hardest of the five to justify when its grain sibling tastes so close for less.