Is it worth the price?
AILSA BAY is a Lowland single malt Scotch from the Ailsa Bay distillery, released without an age statement. Tasters score it 4.7 out of 5 across 11 reviews. It is tracked at 3 retailers, ranging from €69.95 to €77.00, while the valuation model estimates a fair price of around €92.28. That is 0.83× the model estimate — almost exactly the quality-predicted price, with no meaningful brand premium.
Retailers tracked
| Retailer | Price |
|---|---|
| topdrinks | €69.95 |
| whisky.fr | €76.90 |
| whiskylodge | €77.00 |
How we got this number
The valuation model predicts a price from this bottling's inputs. The multiple is the actual market price divided by that prediction.
- Rating
- 4.73 / 5
- Age
- No age statement
- Region
- Lowland
- Distillery tier
- Mid
- Predicted price
- €92.28
- Actual price (median)
- €76.90
- Multiple
- 0.83×
- Verdict band
- fair value (0.80× < … ≤ 1.20×)
Methodology estimate
The deterministic model from methodology.md: production cost per litre × bottle size, plus maturation cost per year, plus a cask premium, times an ABV factor — then multiplied by a quality grade summed across six 0–3 axes.
- Production (€0.10/cl × 70 cl)
- €7.00
- Maturation (NAS→5 × €1.20/year)
- €6.92
- Cask premium (undeclared)
- +€0.00
- × ABV factor
- ×1.20
- Cost floor
- €16.70
NAS treated as 5 years for maturation cost (paper convention).
- Process distinctnessno declared distinctive practices2 / 3
- Cask provenancecask type not declared on bottle0 / 3
- Bottling integrity48.9% ABV; non-chill-filtered inferred from ABV; E150a caramel colouring not disclosed2 / 3
- OwnershipWilliam Grant & Sons — independent or smaller group2 / 3
- Heritagefounded 2009 (17 years of operation)1 / 3
- Reputation4.7273/5 across 11 reviews2 / 3
- Quality score
- 9 / 18
- Quality multiplier
- ×1.75
- Intrinsic value
- €29.23
- Actual price (median)
- €76.90
- Multiple
- 2.63×
- Verdict band
- brand premium
The two models disagree sharply here. The deal-score regression learns from peer prices that age and brand command €92.28 (0.83× the listed price), while the cost-and-quality methodology floors the bottle at €29.23 (2.63×). The gap is the brand premium the market pays beyond what materials, maturation and bottling integrity alone can justify.
Maturation context
Lowland · rolling 12 months: 1,443 mm at Penwhapple Reservoir (6 km). Scotland W rolling 12-month rainfall2,524 mm, +43.70% vs 1995-2024 median.