Single Malt Report: Oban 18 year old (2008 release)

Distillery: Oban

Ownership: Diageo

Age: minimum 18 years

Maturation: refill American Oak ex-bourbon hogsheads

Region: Western Highlands

Alcohol by Volume: 43%

Limited Bottling: 1315 out of 8778

Ah yes, Oban, the odd little gem sitting at the southwest tip of the Highlands, overlooking the lochs near the isles of Mull and Jura.  It's Diageo's second smallest distillery (capacity 670,000 liters).  And despite Diageo's claims that their company is not in the business of making single malts, all of Oban's malt whisky goes into......single malts.  And it's a good thing too.  Of all Diageo's single malts, Oban is their best seller in the United States.

But enough about the Imperial Empire, let's talk about this rebel.

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THE DISTILLERY

In a small town bearing the same name, the Oban distillery faces the loch inlets from the ocean.  Some believe that's where its malts' oft salty character comes from.  Its water sources run through mossy hills which may provide the faint peaty note that some folks pick up in the whisky.  Oban matures its spirit in refill American hogsheads, which are more than 50% larger than regular bourbon barrels, but half the size of sherry butts.

The distillery was founded in 1794 by John and Hugh Stevenson. It was originally established to be a brewery the year before, but quickly switched to whiskymaking. The town of Oban, built up around the distillery, stayed tiny until it grew into a major port and railroad center in the late 1800s.

Oban distillery stayed in the Stevenson family until 1866, when it was purchased by Peter Cumstie.  Then after buying Oban in 1883, James Walter Higgins gradually dismantled and reconstructed the distillery without much of a pause in production.  In 1898 a consortium, which included future jailbirds The Brothers Pattison, took over.  After the consortium went under, Buchanan-Dewar bought what remained (including Oban) in 1923.  Buchanan-Dewar later became part of Distillers Company Limited, which in turn became part of Diageo several decades later.

In 1979, Oban released a 12 year old single malt.  In 1988, their main malt became the 14-year.  A limited cask strength 32-year was released in 2002, then a very limited cask-strength 20-year followed in 2004.  A fino sherry-finished distiller's edition (reviewed briefly here) comes out semi-annually.

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THIS WHISKY

In 2008, Oban released this 18 year old exclusively within the US market.  There were 8,778 bottles in the batch and (a bit curiously) it's still relatively easy to find in the LA liquor specialist shops.

From the moment I'd heard of it, I was pretty excited to try this one.  I was even considering saving my pennies to buy a bottle outright...

But on Robert Burns Day (January 25th) this year, I found myself at The Daily Pint.  And at The Daily Pint, I found a bottle of Oban 18 year.  A full, unopened bottle.  I paid a bit of a premium for the pour, but it was the freshest drop in the bottle (and it could save me $$$ in the long run).

Since I'm VERY familiar with its younger brother, I found myself making mental comparisons between the two quite a bit.

NEAT:

Color-wise, it's where light copper meets apple juice.  A little caramel e150, perhaps?  The nose is dusty, musty, musky, with bourbon / oak sweetness.  There's some citrus (more grapefruit than orange) throughout, with a maple syrup note after a long wait.  The palate is very mild and smooth -- apple juicey, malty, with vanilla and hay.  Its finish changes character into cream and coconut milk with vanilla custard.

WITH WATER:

The nose sheds most of its characteristics retaining bourbon oak and malty notes.  The vanilla pudding note enters the palate along with some molasses amongst the creamy texture.  The finish remains the same.

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It's quite the polite teenager.  Very mellow.  Aficionados may even consider it an aperitif.  It's an easier malt than the 14-year, with the younger sibling's saltier edges mellowed by four more years in wood.

If you like Oban 14, then you'll probably like this.  If you like challenging or intense whiskies, then this might seem too quiet and (almost!) Lowland-like.  As far as my tastes go, I have similar feelings towards this whisky as I had to the Laphroaig 18yr versus its younger brethren.  The 18-years both have a genial grace, but I prefer the strong character of the younger malts.

That does not make this a lesser malt.  In fact, it's damned delicious and can be found at a reasonable price.  It all depends on palate preference.

Availability - Some liquor specialists (US only)
Pricing - Excellent! at $80, still pretty decent at $100
Rating - 86

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This THURSDAY, I'll be posting about a single malt that has garnered four separate report requests.  I'll leave it a mystery for now, but there were plenty of hints in today's post...

We're back home

We're back home after our 4-hour flight was delayed 4 hours.  A sour ending to an otherwise sweet trip to Ohio (Kristen's homeland).  There was the lovely wedding of Sarah and Jim.  Lots of eats and family time.  Dancing and naps.  And more than a couple beverages.

On the flight out, United provided a surprise by offering Jim Beam Black, rather than the classic bottling.  I did a brief post here, though not much to report due to my limited senses.

Once on the ground, there was A LOT of Yuengling.

Yuengling like a boss.

I'm uncertain if it's delicious because it tastes good or if it's delicious because it isn't sold West of the Mississip.  Either way, it's delicious.

Then at the wedding, the catering company threw me for a loop by carrying this:

White Horse!  Hard to find.  Never tried.  Always wanted to.

I had to keep the whisky inflow to a minimum that night since I was the D.D.  I sampled it neat and with soda.  In a nutshell:  White Horse = Baby Lagavulin surviving a near drowning in sweet grain whisky.  I liked it, but I was probably the only one who did.

After transporting my crew back to the hotel (post-wedding), I was gifted a Revised (Beam-less) Three Wise Men:  Jack, Jameson, and Johnnie.  Many many many thanks to my brother-in-law Andrew!  The wisdom was washed down with...

Oh yeah.

Yesterday, during the epic airport delay, I tried the Lake Erie Monster from Great Lakes Brewing Co.  At 9.1% ABV, the 20 ounce serving sent me on a one hour time warp.  I don't know what happened.  It was that good.

Thanks to my Ace of a wife, we were upgraded to First Class (yay!).  Upon lift off, I discovered United carried Canadian Club Reserve 10yr!  I think it was good, but again it was difficult to tell with air-travel-affected senses.  It was, at the very least, better than then Beam Black.

Yeah, this post turned out to be all about drinking again.  But I have nothing new to say about the air travel industry, which seems to be the one business that's been getting less efficient as time goes by and technology improves.  And all of my wedding pictures were blurry like this one:

Which is too bad because everyone looked beautiful.  Especially me.

So we're back now.  It was lovely to see everyone.  We had a GREAT time.  Now we return to our almost-completely fixed-up home.

Single Malt Report Standings as of June 16, 2012

It's Standings Saturday!  Chivas continues its climb up the list, pushing The Singleton off...

(My methodology uses pageview counts from three different sources in an attempt to suss out which posts are spammer heavy and which ones are getting the real clicky traffic.  Then I apply a very (not) sophisticated algorithm.  And from that I get a Top Ten.)

SINGLE MALT REPORT STANDINGS AS OF 6/16/2012 (out of 75 posts):


#10  Millstone 8-year-old French Oak, Dutch Single Malt -1
Millstone's climb may have ended.  Its clicks have quieted down as new reports climb the list.

#9 Powers Gold Label (Blended Irish Whiskey) +1
A decent week for Powers brings it very close to #8.

#8  The Macallan 18-year-old Single Malt NC
"My cat's breath smells like cat food." -- Ralph Wiggum

#7  Lauder's Blended Scotch Whisky -1
Lauders ascent has slowed as well.  It was a favorite for spammers last month which may have help get it all the way up to this point.

#6 Chivas Regal 12-year-old Blended Scotch Whisky +11
The new hotness.  How high it climbs, no one knows.  But it may challenge Mac 12 before next week is over.

#5  The Macallan 12-year-old Single Malt NC
Another quiet week for Mac12.  The Lauders challenge faded, but now Chivas rises.

#4  J&B Rare Blended Scotch Whisky NC
A healthy week puts it far ahead of #5.

#3  The Glenlivet 15-year-old French Oak Reserve Single Malt NC
She's be treading water for the forseeable future.

#2  The Famous Grouse Blended Scotch Whisky NC
The Grouse got within a handful of views of first place before it FINALLY slowed.  But this isn't the last challenge of The Grouse.  The question is, Is it the Thunder or the Heat of the report race?

#1  Glenfiddich 12-year-old Single Malt NC
Just as the reigning champ was about to be unseated on Wednesday by the feisty blend, Glenfiddich found its second wind and pulled away just as the challenger slowed.

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BIG MOVERS

UP
Springbank Springbreak Part 1 jumped 15 spots up to #21.  Random, but awesome!
Kilchoman Summer 2010 hopped up 14 places to #35.  A great single malt, that one.
Chivas moved up 11 spots, as noted above.
Cutty Sark moved north 8 spots to #19.  Why?

DOWN
No one with significant drops this week.

BAD PREDICTIONS FOR NEXT WEEK
The Top Five will be challenged by Chivas.  But no one new will break into the Top Ten.  Though, I something good proves me wrong.

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If this post seemed clipped, it's 'cuz I'm traveling today.  So, thank you for reading!   I'll see you next week.

On the plane

Here I am pondering Jim Beam Black 8yr Bourbon like the Prince of Denmark with Yorick's skull.
No official report on this one, though. Due to heavy white noise and low humidity, the olfactory sense is compromised during air travel.

A sip of Black Jim neat brought a note of pencils (wood and lead) dipped in corn syrup. So I made a highball with it and called it a day.

Single Malt Report: Ardmore Traditional Cask Single Malt

(Apologies for typos! In a rush to get to the airport today...)

Distillery: Ardmore
Bottling: Traditional Cask
Ownership: Beam, Inc.
Age: 7 to 14 years (including one quarter cask year)
Maturation: American Oak ex-bourbon barrels then quarter casks
Region: Highlands
Alcohol by Volume: 46%

Most casual whisky drinkers haven't heard of the Ardmore distillery, though many of them have enjoyed its malt.  The vast majority of Ardmore's whisky ends up in Teachers Highland Cream Scotch Whisky (one of the best selling blends in the world) where it's the main malt ingredient.   

In 1999, to honor the 100th anniversary of the distillery's opening, Ardmore (via Allied Domecq) began wide releases of their single malts.  In 2005, Beam Inc purchased Teachers, Ardmore, and Laphroaig, and have since allowed these brands to continue producing whisky the same as they had before.

Ardmore's single malts may throw some folks for a loop.  They may be expecting a Highland malt like Glendronach or Glen Garioch (its neighbors), with a fruity smokeless spirit.  But what they'll get is a solidly peated savory wallop, reminiscent of Islay malts.

Ardmore distillers have been peating their malt since the production began almost 115 years ago.  So they've kept the old-school Highland barley malt peat-drying method while most of Scotland went with more contemporary fuels.  The peat levels (12-14ppm) are 1/2 or 1/3 that of the Islay peat sluggers, but Ardmore also uses a local Highland peat that differs in structure and scent to that of the island peat.  (That was four peats in one sentence.  Do I win an award?  Peat.)

Like Beam's other single malt, Laphroaig, Ardmore produces this quarter cask bottling amongst their range.  It spends most of its time in ex-bourbon barrels.  Then the malt is dumped into a massive vat, mixed together, then re-racked into considerably smaller barrels (the quarter casks).  These casks allow more spirit-to-wood contact that changes the maturation rate and brings out all sorts of different characteristics.  (I have more info on this process in my Laphroaig Quarter Cask post.)  They've bottled the whisky at a good 46% ABV and have left non-chillfiltered.

I mentioned this whisky in an earlier post and was happily surprised by it.  I had an opportunity to try it again at a local pub for more in-depth analysis, at a reasonable price.

TASTING NOTES

NEAT:
Color -- A lovely dark gold
Nose -- Peated cookie dough, peanuts, apple juice, salty, burnt wood
Palate -- Coastal but not seaweedy, vegetal peat, fruity but not sweet, salted marshmallows
Finish -- Nice!, touch of fruit, peat mellows down, coastal salt, splendid!

W/WATER
Color -- Nice to see it oil up!  Proves the happy lack of filtration.
Nose -- Peated matzos (yes indeed), fresh cherrries, toasty wood
Palate -- Gets sweeter and lightens up, molasses and peat combo
Finish -- Still good, the sweet and peat linger on

I can schpiel on and on about the distillery and history and production methods, but what I really need to say is:  This is good stuff at a good price.

If you like Ardbeg, Laphroaig, and Lagavulin this may be the Highlander for you.  It's similar enough to be comparable, but different enough to be a unique experience.

If you're on the fence about the big Islay peat stew, this may be more your style.  The smoke is woodier, the peat is more vegetal than seaweed.  And there aren't any band-aids.

Ultimately, this whisky is a bit of a hidden beauty that I hope more people discover.

Availability - Many liquor stores
Pricing - Excellent at $36-$43
Rating - 88 (my re-review two years later resulted in an 83)

Some site 'scaping

As promised, I've added a whisky resource page full of links to the sites that I pour over on a (much too) frequent basis.  Clicking those links will bring you blogs, videos, podcasts, news, facts, opinions, and whisky.

I've added Pinterest and Twootter buttons too.  Kristen LOVES Pinterest, so I thought I'd utilize it to chronicle personal whisky choices.

Otherwise, I did some cleanup on the right side of the page.  If I've left out anything of interest, drop me a line and I'll try to add it!

NOT Single Malt Report: Bulleit Rye and an unknown bourbon

Bottler: Bulleit
Distiller: Lawrenceburg Distillers Indiana (LDI)
Ownership: Diageo

Age: 5 to 7 years

Maturation: Virgin American Oak
Mash Bill: 95% Rye, 5% malted barley

Region: Indiana, USA

Alcohol by Volume: 45%

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Quicker liquor info!

Mash Bill (or grain bill) - the proportion/percentages of grains used to form the mash (with boiling water), which in turn creates the liquid that holds the future whiskey's fermentable sugars.

Bourbon must have a mash bill of at least 51% corn.

American Rye Whiskey must have a mash bill of at least 51% rye.

American Small Batch Whiskey must have a mash bill of at least 80% rye.

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As mentioned in my vacation post a few weeks back, Kristen and I went to Birba for our first dinner in Palm Springs.  Birba's a great wide open wall-less roof-less restaurant with great food and a respectable bar.  Kristen started out with a Lambrusco which was an excellent call for a warm summer night.  I saw  a bunch of interesting American whiskies on the shelf...

Tom Bulleit & family make a bourbon that's known for having a high rye mash bill (28%-33%) and when I'd tried it in December, I found it more than palatable.  Bulleit released a rye whiskey in 2011 and it's NINETY-FIVE percent rye.  That is very high.  And my oh my, I like me some rye.

So I went with the Bulleit Rye Whiskey, neat.  How did I feel about it?  This:

As you can see from the two pics on this post, the whiskey's color is lovely, like a rich maple syrup.  The nose is more complex than the flavor, a characteristic similar to many Scotch single malts.  This rye smells of bananas, molasses, cloves, flower blossoms, nutmeg, Christmas spices, and good fresh ripe apples.  The palate is both vegetal and fruity, with caramel sauce, cloves, cinnamon, and Robotussin (but in a good way).  It finishes strong, with cinnamon and more Robotussin.

It won't melt your brain like the Willett Single Barrels (yes, they really do that).  But it's still quite delicious and, considering its price range, a super value.  Trader Joe's is selling the bottle for $19.99, so this will probably be the next rye I own.

Availability - Wide (U.S.)

Pricing - Excellent at $20-$25

Rating - 84

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After the meal, Kristen went for another glass of the Lambrusco while I decided to FINALLY try some Buffalo Trace.  It's an affordable bourbon from a major power player in the whiskey industry.

What the waiter brought me was a luscious rye-heavy bourbon.  But it was not Buffalo Trace.  Trace is known to have a low rye mash bill (about five to eight percent).  So, I'm not sure what it was that I drank.  But it was very good.

Here are my notes anyway...

The color was a smidgen lighter than the rye, though it was nighttime and it could have been orange, red, and purple for all I know.  The nose: "spritely rye tempered by milder grains like corn & barley, a little grassier, saltier".  As for the palate, it was BIG on rye, with a rush of sweetness (intense but within reason), and "bright and lively around the edges".  It finished sweet and buttery, very lengthy, with more rye.

After perusing other folks' tasting notes and considering my drink's rye-ness, I've come to the conclusion that I still have yet to try Buffalo Trace.  And it wasn't quite Bulleit Bourbon either.  Whatever I did have that night was nice, though it shall remain shrouded in mystery...