They say that you always have to pay more for a thoroughbred, and the same goes for the world of whiskey.
While there are plenty of bargains to be had when buying whiskey*, there is one category where great deals are harder to find: malts.
And how high is that cost? Well, the Yamazaki 55-year-old malt has a global average retail price of more than $911,000; its 50-year-old stablemate goes for more than $700,000. We currently have 15 malts on our database that have six-figure global average retail prices.
So, we've established that it is expensive, but usually only when bottled as a single malt. Its other major use is as a malt component to be added to cheaper continuous-still spirit to make blended Scotch, the biggest-selling category of whiskey in the world. Since a little malt is made to go a long way in blends, these bottles tend to be much cheaper than malts.
Somewhere in between are the blended, or vatted, malts. These are mixtures of malt from different distilleries, combined to give the bottler the desired effect. These tend to be somewhere between malts and blends on the price scale, and consequently can offer some excellent value, as you'll see from our list below.
Value is, as ever, based on our bang-for-buck ratio. How we rank best value is based on both score and price – we take the score and divide it by the price which then gives a ranking. The higher the number, the better value that whiskey is.
10 American Whiskey Trends in 2021
Best Value Malt Whiskies on Wine-Searcher:
Whisky Name
Value factor
Monkey Shoulder The Original Batch 27 Blended Malt
2.73
Paul John Nirvana
2.54
Mackinlay's Shackleton Rare Old Highland Malt
2.40
The Singleton of Dufftown 12 Year Old
2.37
The Glenlivet Founder's Reserve Single Malt
2.17
Glenmorangie The Original 10 Year Old
2.07
Old Pulteney 12 Year Old
2.02
Johnnie Walker Island Green Blended Malt
1.87
Highland Park 12 Year Old
1.61
Glenmorangie Lasanta 12 Year Old
1.57
It's an interesting list on a number of fronts. First is the fact that there are only three blended malts on the list, the Monkey Shoulder, the Shackleton and the Johnnie Walker. The other thing is the number of actually recognizable single malts on the list: Highland Park, Glenmorangie and Glenlivet are high on most malt-lovers' radars, and Pulteney and Singleton are well-known and well-regarded, too. And a shout-out to Indian producer Paul John for making the list, too; Indian interest in whiskey is deep and abiding, but their own producers tend to be overlooked in favor of Scotland's finest.
Another thing to note is the scores. Whiskey critics tend to be less effusive than their wine counterparts. Not for them the endless elevation of scores in an attempt to make a name for themselves, or simply to get invited to more tastings; instead a level of sanity prevails. When it comes to whiskey, any score between 75 and 85 is perfectly good, and a score in the high 80s represents a superior spirit; those in the 90s tend to be the greats.
With that in mind, the score spread here goes from 89 (Paul John, Shackleton, Pulteney, Glenlivet and the Glenmorangie Original) to 92 (the Highland Park), by way of Monkey Shoulder, Johnnie Walker and Singleton (all 90), and the Glenmorangie Lasanta at 91. Those are impressive scores. They are all the more impressive when you look at the global average retail prices, which go from $33 (Monkey Shoulder) to $58 for the Lasanta.
