Laphroaig's Quarter Cask is usually one of Islay's great-value drams. On the shelf this week it is the opposite.
Three Laphroaigs are on the shelf, and all three sit over their flavour-crowd, the ten whiskies the model rates nearest each on taste. For a peat name this beloved, a premium is the expected thing. What is not expected is the spread. The entry-level Select Cask sits only a little over its crowd. The 10-year sits modestly over. And the Quarter Cask, normally the sweet spot of the range, sits more than twice over its crowd this week. The order of value is almost upside down from how the range is usually shopped.
Begin with the Select Cask, because it is the quiet winner here. It is the gentlest Laphroaig, a softer, more approachable take on the house style: peat smoke and iodine still present, but eased back, with a soft ashy finish rather than a punch in the mouth. It is the bottle to hand someone who thinks they do not like Islay. At $84 against a crowd of $72 it sits about $12 over, roughly 17%, the smallest gap of the three by a wide margin. For an everyday Laphroaig that still tastes unmistakably of the distillery, it is the sensible buy this week.
1/Two of Islay's benchmark malts are both at their own floor this week at Dan Murphy's. Laphroaig 10 is $97. Ardbeg An Oa is $75. Neither has been cheaper across the eight weeks I've been tracking them.
2/Buy the pair and you're at $172. Those two bottles together have averaged about $247 over that window, so the basket is running roughly $75 under its own norm. That's well outside the usual week-to-week wobble.
3/The engine rates them close on character too — ninth-nearest to each other by utility. Both live at the Peat & Maritime end: Laphroaig the medicinal, iodine hit; the An Oa softer and a shade sweeter off the char.
4/Same island, same style, both at the bottom of their range on the same morning. If you were ever going to stock the peat shelf, it's this week. Which is your pour — the TCP punch of the 10, or the rounder An Oa?
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.
Both are Islay single malts built on peat, and they sit side by side nicely. Ardbeg Wee Beastie, $92, brings wood smoke, black pepper and a sea breeze, with milk chocolate raisins and vanilla behind it; Laphroaig Select Cask, $75 for members, is the calmer, sweeter one, gentle peat smoke, iodine and damp earth wrapped in vanilla. Together they come to $167 at Dan Murphy's for members this week, against $181 at their usual prices, and $183 for the same two at Liquorland this week. At home that's a smoky pour for well under a pint.
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.
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.
Laphroaig's best-known bottle turns out to be its best-value one this week. That is not where the badge tells you to look.
Here is the bottle you would bet against finding value in: the one on every best-of-Islay list, the benchmark peated malt, the name people use as shorthand for medicinal smoke. And this week it is the buy.
Big peated Islay malts almost never come in under what their rivals charge. Two of Laphroaig's do this week, and they are the two most people should be buying anyway.
| bottle | region | latest ticket | read | window price | CE 360° mean | premium | shelf rank | per std drink | drink rank | content |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Laphroaig 10 Year Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky | Islay | $108.85 | observed | $97.00 | $86.43 | 10.9% | #5 of 16 | $4.93 | #12 of 16 | 13 |
| Laphroaig Quarter Cask Scotch Whisky | Islay | $169.99 | observed | $169.99 | $141.44 | 16.8% | #12 of 16 | $4.72 | #10 of 16 | 0 |
| Laphroaig Select Cask Scotch Whisky | Islay | $83.99 | observed | $75.00 | $65.74 | 12.3% | #8 of 16 | $3.39 | #2 of 16 | 1 |