Label 5 is not a name anyone chases. It is the French-owned blend that turns up on the bottom shelf, built to be poured into a mixer and forgotten, and most weeks there is nothing to say about it. This week there is one small thing, and it runs against the grain of almost every other distillery on the shelf.
The bottle the model can read cleanly, the Premium Reserve 12-year-old, is priced at just about what it is worth. At $68 it sits roughly 3% over the $66 its ten closest neighbours fetch, which in this trade counts as fair. The brand median lands at $68 too, so the dearest bottle Label 5 makes is also the one asking an honest number. On a shelf where famous names pile premium on premium, a budget blend that charges about what its company charges is quietly the more interesting story.
It is a decent drop for the money, too. Soft and easy, a wisp of smoke, banana and apple, barley sugar and toffee. Nobody is going to build a cabinet around it, but as the bottle you keep for a weeknight pour or a highball it does the job and does not overcharge for it. The age statement, rare at this price, is a genuine point in its favour.
1/A supermarket blend and one of Diageo's malt blends, rated near-identical by the choice engine. Label 5 Classic Black is the well-stocked grocery Scotch. Copper Dog is a Speyside blended malt, all malt and no grain. Fifth-closest pair on the whole shelf.
2/"Close" here is the model reading their flavour coordinates, not anyone tasting the two side by side. Both land light and soft: orchard fruit, a gentle sweetness. The Copper Dog carries a tropical, rum-cask lilt; the Label 5 shows more of its grain, corn and a little spice.
3/Timing is the interesting part. The Copper Dog is the clear buy right now, under its cohort's floor and at the bottom of its own recent range at the same time. $57 on a My Dan Murphy's member price, $65 on the shelf. Two separate reads calling it cheap, which beats one.
4/Label 5 is the split verdict. It's at its own recent low too, $63 on member and $72 for the full litre, but its two reads don't line up the way the Copper Dog's do. Same corner of the engine, one clean value. Which would you reach for: the litre of blend, or the malt?
Most budget blends charge you for the label and hope you don't check. Label 5 mostly doesn't, and its 12-year-old is the surprise on this shelf.
| bottle | region | latest ticket | read | window price | CE 360° mean | premium | shelf rank | per std drink | drink rank | content |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Label 5 Classic Black Blended Scotch Whisky 1L | Speyside | $69.99 | observed | $48.99 | $48.58 | 0.8% | #1 of 79 | $2.00 | #2 of 75 | 1 |
| Label 5 Classic Black Blended Scotch Whisky 700mL | Speyside | $56.99 | observed | $53.99 | $53.29 | 1.3% | #5 of 79 | $2.58 | #3 of 75 | 0 |
| Label 5 Premium Reserve 12 Year Old Blended Scotch Whisky | Speyside | $67.99 | observed | $67.99 | $66.92 | 1.6% | #8 of 79 | $2.81 | #13 of 75 | 0 |