**What to pay**
The Glendronach 12 is $110 at Dan Murphy's this week. It usually sells around $119, so this week it sits a touch under its usual mark.
The point
1/The Glendronach 12 keeps its sherry held back rather than piled on, which is where this distillery seems at its happiest. Twelve years old, and $110 this week at Dan Murphy's. It usually sells around $119.
2/If the Glenfarclas 15 is your pour, here is the shape of it: the Glendronach 12 gives you about 95% of what the Glenfarclas 15 gives, for 59% of its price. Nearly all the dram, for well under the price.
3/What does a Glenfarclas 15 drinker give up to get there? Mostly three years of age and some strength. That is the trade, set out plainly, with nothing hidden in it.
4/So a yes for each. The Glenfarclas 15, $185, stays the one for its fans: dried fruits, toffee, a little leather, a slice of Christmas cake. The Glendronach 12 is the one for every other night.
Hand The Glendronach 12 to drinkers of its nearest bottles and they'd pay $90 to $248 for it, each from what their own bottle costs. The closest, a Glenfarclas 15 drinker, lands at $125, 68% of their own. It's $110 this week. More in this week's piece. Where would you sit?
The Glendronach 12 is $110 at Dan Murphy's this week. It usually sells around $119, so a few dollars under its regular mark as you pour one. Where it sits against the neighbours is in this week's piece.
Friday night, two bottles out on the bench and no one able to pick a favourite. The Glendronach 12, $110: a sherried Highland malt that's at its best when the sherry doesn't crowd it out, and this one lets the spirit through. Glenfiddich 18, $175: oak and fresh apple, barley and cereal, dried fruit and a touch of toffee, Christmas-pudding sweetness and a warm cinnamon finish, about $7.92 a pour at home. Two malts cut from close cloth. This week at Dan Murphy's the pair comes to $285; usually they're $294, and the same two are $328 at Liquorland this week. Which would you reach for first?
Glenfarclas 15: Christmas cake in a glass. Dried fruit, toffee, a hint of leather, warming spice. Full-bodied and smooth, non-chill filtered. This week it's $185 at Dan Murphy's. The whole story's in this week's piece.
If you love Glenfarclas 15, I'd happily pour you a Tamdhu 12. At $126 it's about 68% of the Glenfarclas price, and for a Glenfarclas 15 drinker it gives you about 88% of what you already enjoy, with citrus, hazelnut and dry sherry. More on Glenfarclas 15 in this week's piece.
Hand a Tamdhu 12 drinker a Glenfarclas 15 and they'd pay about $87 for it, 69% of what their own bottle costs them. The sherry and dried fruit sit close enough to home. Who it suits: a sherried-malt drinker. More in this week's piece on the Glenfarclas 15.
Glenfarclas 15, all dried fruit and Christmas cake, is $7.28 a standard drink poured at home — the kind of pour you sit with rather than rush. This week's piece has the rest.
Like Glenfarclas 15? Aberlour 14 pours jammy peaches, marzipan and vanilla, then slips into milk chocolate and a whisper of coffee. For a Glenfarclas 15 drinker it gives about 88% of the ride at 76% of the price, $140 for members. More in this week's piece.
If Glenfarclas 15 is your bottle, its closest twin at Dan Murphy's is The GlenDronach 15 Revival — nearest both on the words in the two reviews and on what drinkers choose. It gives you about 99% of what the Glenfarclas 15 does, for 95% of the price.
Glenfarclas 15 is $185 at Dan Murphy's this week, which is about where it usually sits. As a pour at home that works out to around $7.28 a standard drink, a touch over a $13 pint at the pub (roughly $6.28 a drink, since a pint holds about two). There are about 25 standard drinks in the bottle.
| bottle | region | latest ticket | read | window price | CE 360° mean | premium | shelf rank | per std drink | drink rank | content |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The GlenDronach 15 Year Old Revival Whisky | Highlands | $175.99 | observed | $175.99 | $148.35 | 15.7% | #23 of 38 | $6.93 | #26 of 36 | 5 |
| The Glendronach 12YO Single Malt Scotch Whisky | Highlands | $109.99 | observed | $118.99 | $101.19 | 15.0% | #22 of 38 | $4.63 | #15 of 36 | 12 |