Bruichladdich sends two bottles to the shelf this week, and they answer the value question in opposite directions. The unpeated one is priced about right. The peated one asks nearly half as much again as its company.
Two Bruichladdichs are here, the brand tag sitting around $124. One is the Classic Laddie, the distillery's unpeated house style. The other is Port Charlotte 10, its heavily peated line. Same distillery, same island, two very different drams, and the model rates each against a different set of neighbours because they are built to taste like different things. Set beside those neighbours, one is a fair buy and the other is a steep one, and the dividing line is the smoke.
Start with the fair one. The Classic Laddie is $109, about 6% over the roughly $103 its ten nearest neighbours cost. A single-figure gap, which in single malt is as close to fair as these pieces tend to find. And it is a lovely thing to drink: barley-forward, as the name promises, with lemon and honey, a little toffee and a dusting of cinnamon over fresh oak. The model reads it as orchard-and-cereal with a tropical lift, no peat to speak of, and that is exactly the Laddie's pitch. This is Islay with the smoke left out, a bright, malty, almost coastal whisky that shows what the island's barley does before the kiln gets involved. At six percent over its room it is doing honest work for the money.
Ardbeg Wee Beastie: wood smoke and sea breeze, black pepper, then milk chocolate raisins and vanilla. Peaty, punchy, oily, with a long smoky finish. $92 this week; it usually sells around $106. A young Islay with teeth. Love peat? This one's for you. More in this week's piece.
I love handing a Laphroaig 10 drinker an Ardbeg Wee Beastie. They'd pay about $68 for it, roughly 62% of what their own bottle costs them, docking it a little for the extra strength. A yes either way, really. More on the Beastie in this week's piece.
A dram of Ardbeg Wee Beastie after the plates are cleared, and the sums are the small ones: about 26 drinks to the bottle, which comes to $3.51 a pour at home. A pint at the pub runs closer to $6.28 for the same measure. The tasting is in this week's piece.
Ardbeg Wee Beastie is $92 at Dan Murphy's this week. It usually sells around $106, so you're catching it below the usual. If you like your Islay loud, peat, smoke and sea air, this one's for you. At about $3.51 a pour it's easy to keep on the bench. More in this week's piece.
Lagavulin 8 is light in colour but no wimp: the nose heads straight to the shore, mineral and salt, then turns sweet and lively. Menthol, bay laurel, brine, a touch of Parma violet. Peat smoke blown off a kiln into salt air. $113 at Dan Murphy's. More in this week's piece.
If Lagavulin 8 is your dram, Ardbeg Wee Beastie, $92, gives a Lagavulin 8 drinker about 92% of what the Lagavulin 8 does for 81% of the price, all wood smoke, sea breeze and black pepper, with more on the Lagavulin 8 in this week's piece.
Hand a Caol Ila 12 drinker a Lagavulin 8 and they'd pay 59% of what their own bottle costs, marking it down for being the younger pour. Still an easy yes for anyone who loves salt, shore and peat smoke. Where would it sit for you? More in this week's piece on Lagavulin 8.
At $4.26 a standard drink, a pour of Lagavulin 8 at home sits under the $6.28 a pint costs at the pub. The $113 bottle holds about 27 standard drinks, 161st of 310 at Dan Murphy's by price per drink. Where does that leave you? More in this week's piece on Lagavulin 8.
Like Lagavulin 8? Laphroaig 10 gives a Lagavulin 8 drinker about 80% of the same pour, for 96% of the price — and it's $109. Brine, iodine, charcoal, a sweet oak finish. The rest sits in this week's piece on Lagavulin 8.
Pour Ledaig 10 of an evening and the peat lands brisk and bracing, its raw edge softened by honeyed vanilla, earthy smoke, ripe barley and a twist of black liquorice. $99 for members at Dan Murphy's, where it usually sells around $104. More in this week's piece.
If Ledaig 10 is your smoke, Talisker 10 sits right alongside it: a Ledaig 10 drinker gets about 99% of what they came for, at 93% of the price. That's $92 for members, sweet pear and cracked black pepper under the smoke. More on Ledaig 10 in this week's piece.
Ask the drinkers of the bottles nearest Ledaig 10 what it's worth to them. Their answers run $86 to $133, each from what they pay for their own. At $99 for members it sits inside that range, an easy yes for the peat drinker. More on Ledaig 10 in this week's piece.
They're all smoky, each in its own way. Ledaig 10 comes to $3.87 a standard drink — a pour at home, around 26 to the bottle. A pint at the pub runs about $6.28 a standard drink. More on Ledaig 10 in this week's piece.
Earthy peat smoke, honeyed vanilla and a stick of black liquorice, a brisk punch with soothing sweetness beneath. That's Ledaig 10, $99 for members at Dan Murphy's this week. It usually sells around $104, so take this as a gentle guide. More in this week's piece.
Pale in the glass, but no wimp. The nose heads for the shore: mineral, salt, a sweetness that keeps it fresh. Then menthol, a hint of malt, Parma violet, like peat smoke blown off a kiln into salt air. Lagavulin 8, $99 for members. Pour one this week; more in the piece.
I asked the drinkers of Lagavulin 8's nearest neighbours what they'd pay for it, each starting from their own bottle: $100 to $142. At $99 for members, it lands just inside that range. I've set it all out in this week's piece on Lagavulin 8 — where would you put it?
Lagavulin 8 runs $99, about 27 standard drinks, so $3.73 a pour at home. A pint at the pub is around $6.28 a standard drink. Shore on the nose, menthol and bay laurel on the palate, breezy peat through. One for the drinker who likes smoke fresh. More in this week's piece.
Ledaig 10, Tobermory's peated one, $99 for members at Dan Murphy's. Earthy peat smoke on the nose, then ripe barley, honeyed vanilla and bourbon char, a black liquorice stick, a brush of olive brine before the sweetness soothes. Pour one and see, more in this week's piece.
Hand a Port Charlotte 10 drinker a Ledaig 10 and they'd pay 85% of what their own bottle runs, knocking a little off for Tobermory rather than Islay. Same peat, same brine. Would you pour it? More in this week's piece on Ledaig 10.
Ledaig 10 works out to $3.87 a standard drink, the cost of a pour at home, where a pint at the pub sits closer to $6.28 for each of its roughly two. Something to turn over on a quiet night, isn't it? More on Ledaig 10 in this week's piece.
Ledaig 10 is $99 for members at Dan Murphy's this week, where it usually sells around $109. Earthy peat smoke, ripe barley and honeyed vanilla on the nose, bracing at the edges with a soothing sweetness underneath. Tempted? The full read on Ledaig 10 is in this week's piece.
Ledaig 10, $99 for members at Dan Murphy's. Ten years old, 46.3%. A brisk punch of peat, earthy smoke, ripe barley, a touch of honeyed vanilla. For a Port Charlotte 10 drinker it gives about 91% of what that bottle does, at 68% of the price.
Pour a Port Charlotte 10: heavy peat that leans meaty, butterscotch underneath, iodine kept in check. $146 this week. The Lagavulin 8 gives a Port Charlotte 10 drinker about 97% of what that bottle does, for 68% of the price.
Ardbeg Wee Beastie is $92 this week, and from what we have seen it usually sells around $106, which puts it about as low as we have ever found it sitting in a Dan Murphy's cabinet.
A mate tips a finger of Lagavulin 8 into your glass at his kitchen bench, says nothing, and waits. You've had the 16. You've not had this one. It's pale in the glass, so you brace for something thin, and then it isn't thin at all.
A mate hands you the aisle at Dan Murphy's and says pick something smoky we'll all drink. That's the quiet test, really — not the bottle you love most, but the one the whole table gets on with. Reach for Ledaig 10 and you've answered it.
If Lagavulin 8 is in your glass, here's the fair question: does a peated Islay this bold really suit a table full of people you're pouring for? It does. Lagavulin 8 sits in the top 4% of bottles for how broadly it's liked. Big smoke, wide welcome.
Let's start with the number, because that's the news. Ledaig 10 is $99 for members at Dan Murphy's this week. From what we've seen it usually sells around $109, and across the times we've looked it has run between $99 and $112. So this week lands right at the floor: about as low as we've seen it.
Most Islay distilleries pick a lane. Bruichladdich runs two, and this week its shelf shows you both, at two very different prices for two very different ideas of value.
| bottle | region | latest ticket | read | window price | CE 360° mean | premium | shelf rank | per std drink | drink rank | content |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bruichladdich Port Charlotte 10 Year Old Scotch Whisky | Islay | $145.99 | observed | $145.99 | $127.43 | 12.7% | #9 of 16 | $5.29 | #14 of 16 | 29 |
| Bruichladdich The Classic Laddie Single Malt Scotch Whisky | Islay | $100.99 | observed | $108.99 | $96.39 | 11.6% | #6 of 16 | $3.66 | #4 of 16 | 0 |