Starward's Solera asks the most over its room this week

That is where the range stretches widest, so it is where to start. The idea behind "its room" first, because every figure here depends on it: the model takes each whisky, gathers the ten others it judges closest on flavour, and reads their middle price as the going rate for that style. The Solera, matured in fortified-wine casks, lands in a room where the middle price is about $63, and it asks $143. That is roughly $80, or about 127%, over the company it keeps, the widest gap in the Starward line-up by some distance. The whisky itself is the richest thing the distillery bottles: dense apricot and jam, dried fruit, a thick sweetness that coats the glass. It is a genuinely good dram. It is also priced as if the wine-cask story alone justifies more than doubling the going rate for the style, and on these numbers that is a stretch.

The Panettone is the next step down and tells a softer version of the same story. At $105 against a room near $69 it runs about $36, or 52%, over its neighbours. This one leans into the festive-cake idea its name promises: rich and sweet, with dried orange peel and a baked, almost pastry-like warmth, and it is a limited, seasonal sort of bottle, which tends to carry a premium of its own. Half as much again over the room is still a lot to pay for the concept, but at least the concept is distinctive and the whisky delivers on it.

The middle of the range is where Starward looks most reasonable. The Nova, the distillery's red-wine-cask everyday malt, sits at $94 against a room near $76, about $18, or 24%, over, the tightest premium of the single malts. It is Starward in its most recognisable form: jammy berry fruit, ripe apricot, a sweet richness that is easy to like. The Two-fold, the double-grain blend, runs $74 against a lower room near $51, about $23 or 45% over, but it is the cheapest Starward on the shelf and a gentler, lighter proposition: soft apple, caramel and grain, a whisky for mixing or easy sipping rather than contemplation. Neither is a bargain against its room, but the Nova in particular is the one where the premium feels proportionate to what is in the glass.

Then the exception, and it is a real one. The Unexpeated single malt is the single bottle in the range that sits under its room: $75 against a room near $91, about $16 or 18% below what its neighbours ask. The name is a play on words rather than a description: this is a fruit-forward malt, apricot and berries and jam on its own review, but the model also reads a coastal, faintly smoky edge in its make-up, which is part of why it lands in the room it does. Whatever the reason, the arithmetic is plain: of the five Starwards on the shelf, this is the only one offering more whisky than its price suggests, and it does it with the kind of ripe, generous character the distillery is known for. It is the value pick of the range without much argument.

Step back and the pattern is consistent with what Starward is. This is a young, ambitious distillery that leans hard on cask character (wine, fortified wine, seasonal finishes), and the shelf prices that leaning accordingly. The further a bottle goes toward the headline cask story, the further its price travels from its room; the Solera is that logic taken to its end. The plainer and more everyday the bottle, the closer it sits to fair, with the Unexpeated actually crossing under. The liquid across the range is good. The question each bottle poses is just how much of its price is the whisky and how much is the cask it is sold on.

So, buying. For value, the Unexpeated at $75 is the clear call: the one Starward under its room, and a ripe, characterful malt in its own right. For an everyday pour that drinks like the house style, the Nova at $94 is the pick, with the smallest premium among the single malts. The Two-fold at $74 is the budget and mixing option, lighter and simpler. The Panettone at $105 is a seasonal treat if the baked-fruit idea appeals, priced like one. And the Solera at $143 is for the drinker who already knows they want that big, fortified-cask richness and is willing to pay well over the room for it: a fine whisky, but the opposite of a value buy this week.