Talisker runs the Islands, and charges for it

That tells you most of what you need to know before a single price is read. This is a small, concentrated room, the whiskies of Skye, Jura, Raasay and their neighbours, and one distillery sets the tone for all of it. The middle of the shelf lands at $116. What marks the Islands out from a broad room like the Highlands is not the average, though. It is that I could not find a bargain. Every bottle I looked at this week asks more than the drams it sits beside. The only question is by how much. That makes it a simpler shelf to read than most, and a harder one to shop cheaply. There are no honest-blend bargains tucked at the bottom this week, the way a bigger region usually offers one or two. The eight bottles here are almost all serious peated singles, and serious peated singles on a small island shelf do not come cheap.

Here is the measure. Each whisky is set against the ten the model reads as closest to it in flavour, and the middle price of those ten becomes the yardstick: the going rate for that bottle's kind, taken off this week's shelf, not a judgement on the whisky itself. On most shelves some bottles clear the yardstick and some duck under it. On the Islands this week they all clear it, which is unusual enough to be the story.

Talisker Port Ruighe asks the most of its company. It is $149 against about $92 for its ten nearest, roughly 62% over, the widest gap on the shelf. This is the port-finished Talisker, and the cask shows: sherried depth, chocolate and honey, ginger and nutmeg stirred through a spicy, maritime body. It is a genuinely rich, interesting dram. It is also priced well clear of the whiskies the model files alongside it, so you are paying for the name and the finish both.

The standard Talisker 10 is the one most people mean when they say Talisker, and it carries a gentler premium. At $123 it is about 24% over the $99 of its ten closest. The flavour is the one the island is famous for: smoke and sweetness together, a note of pear, heather and a clean lick of seaweed. Pepper on the finish, as ever. A serious everyday malt, tagged about a quarter over its neighbourhood, which for a bottle this well made is a toll plenty will pay without complaint.

Talisker Storm is the no-age-statement sibling, and the closest Talisker to its band here. It is $110, about 20% over the roughly $92 its neighbours cost. Storm leans harder into the coast, all brine and maritime weight, wood and a touch of honeyed sweetness underneath, spice holding it together. It is the brawnier pour of the range, and the least dear relative to its company, if only by a nose.

Isle of Raasay is the young outsider in the room and behaves much like the Taliskers. It is $122 against about $101, roughly 21% over. The distillery is barely a decade old, and the whisky shows its working: cereal and citrus, lemon brightness, peat and smoke threaded through fruit. It is good, and it is ambitious, and it is priced like an establishment malt rather than a newcomer trying to buy its way onto the shelf. For a distillery still finding its feet, that is either confidence or cheek, depending on how the dram lands for you, and on this evidence it lands well enough to carry the tag.

The two Juras are where the shelf gets a little easier on the wallet, in dollars if not in gap. The Rum Cask Finish is $84, about 22% over the $69 of its ten nearest. It is the sunniest thing here: honey and dried fruit, pineapple and mango, a green-apple snap and cocoa behind. The rum cask does real work, and against the heavy Islanders around it, it is a change of weather. Jura 12, the house single malt, is $100 against about $82, also roughly 22% over. Its own reviews are thin, so I will not put words in its mouth beyond where the model places it: the same tropical, rum-cask lean as its sibling, with an island smokiness underneath. A fuller, older Jura than the finish, at a fuller price, and over its band by the same margin.

So, by what you want and what you will spend. If you want the Islands at full richness and the dollars are not the point, Port Ruighe is the most characterful pour on the shelf, and the dearest against its kind. If you want the classic island malt, Talisker 10 is the one, and Storm gives you more coastal muscle for a touch less over the band. If you are curious about a young distillery, Raasay is the one to try, priced like its elders. And if you simply want onto the Islands without climbing into three figures, the Jura Rum Cask is the cheapest ticket in the room, sweet and tropical and a world away from the peat. Just go in knowing the island tax is real this week. Nothing here is a bargain against its neighbours. Some of it is very much worth the money anyway.