Single Malt Report: Oban 14 year old

Distillery: Oban
Ownership: Diageo
Age: minimum 14 years
Maturation: refill American oak hogsheads
Region: Western Highlands
Alcohol by Volume: 43%

Oban 14 has long been a favorite of mine.  Once I'd tried the Johnnie Walkers, the Glenfiddichs, the Glenlivets, the Glenmorangies, and The Macallan 12, my next step was Oban.  My fall down the single malt rabbit hole quickened from there.

I've probably bought more bottles of Oban 14 than any other single, despite its often unfortunate pricing.  My current bottle came from an unanticipated purchase last December when I found a bottle that was considerably mispriced.  Sadly that liquor establishment has since learned of and corrected its error.

I opened the bottle more than a month ago and have since been trying to figure out how to report on it.  I mean, I am so familiar with the whisky that taking tasting notes became a profound challenge.

It's like trying to describe the sky......It's blue and it's up there.

COLOR

Unlike the sky, Oban 14 isn't blue, but its color is screwy.  Here's a crummy picture that I took yesterday of the liquor in the bottle:

That's the color.  To establish why it is "screwy", let me take a step back and explain the whisky a bit.

The Oban spirit is not aged in ex-sherry casks which provide dark maple syrupy and reddish hues.  It is not aged in first-fill bourbon barrels that provide light golden tones.  Instead it is aged in hogsheads (more than 50% larger than normal bourbon barrels) that have previously held maturing whisky.

So the whisky doesn't have an enormous amount of contact with the oak.  The oak's tannins have been previously incorporated into other whisky.  And the spirit hasn't aged that long in the oak to withdraw darker tones.

So the color should be even lighter than Laphroaig 10's.  Something along the lines of chardonnay with the faintest gold highlights.

Now take a look at that color in the photo above.  That pigment is due to a heapin' helpin' of artificial coloring, aka caramel e150a.  Diageo adds the coloring because it makes the whisky look lovely.  But it's an industrially-designed food additive.

There's a debate in the whisky community about whether or not this dye can be tasted in the palate.  I personally don't know.  It just bugs me because the colorant is unnecessary.  It's like a beautiful young woman getting botox treatment.  You don't need it, Baby, you're gorgeous already!

NOSE AND MOUTH

Here's where I get back to the good news.  Because the oak isn't bourbony or sherried, because the oak has been previously used, what we taste and smell when we sip Oban neat is (mostly) the spirit itself.  There are some oak notes and water has been added to bring the whisky down to 43% ABV, but that salty peppery creaminess is its very malt.  The sturdy spirit not only survives the colorant and filtration and water but it thrives.

Some notes:

NEAT
The nose is salt & malt first.  A little oak, but no bourbon.  A bit of an ethyl prickle.  Salted caramel candies.  Not quite a whisper of smoke, but rather a memory of smoke.  And if you let it sit for a while, an oaky buttery note does form.

The palate is sweet on the start.  Caramel (the sauce, not the colorant).  Toffee.  Apple flesh.  Salty, but within reason.  Pepper rather than smoke.  Substantial creamy texture.  So adding that all up (salt + caramel + cream), it's almost dulce de leche, but also totally not dulce de leche.  Let's just go with the salted caramel candy.

WITH WATER (approx 35% ABV)
The nose logically gets lighter.  Very malty and bready.  A little oak develops with time.  Some gin-like herbals.  And if you sniff really deeply you may find some fruity sweets in there.

The palate becomes very fresh and clean.  Creamier, fruitier.  Less of the salted caramel.  A hint of notebook paper.  But the spritely malt spirit remains.

THE FINISH

Yes, I left the finish out of the notes above.  Why?

I once heard two women moan when the Oban finish hit.  Yes, the good kind of moan.

Amen.

Oh, so you want actual finish notes?  Here's some vagueness for you.  When neat, Oban 14 has a very hearty finish.  Sweet but not saccharine.  Feels like the natural sugars from the malted grain.  And it lingers for a good amount of time.  Adding water quiets it down, bringing out some of the saltiness.  But the sweet note still lingers on.

THOUGHTS

I'd last tried Oban 14 several months before I started these single malt reports.  So there's been a considerable amount of whisky sampling since.  My experience hasn't necessarily lowered Oban 14 in my esteem, just changed it a bit, laterally.

I love experiencing its coastal spirit.  That finish is terribly enjoyable.  And the whisky is like an old (inanimate) friend.  But I have found others.  Other grand spirits, some challenging some easy some warming some thrilling.  So when my Diageo boycott begins next summer, I will be ready to move on.

But maybe one more bottle before then.

Availability - All liquor specialists
Pricing - Not great.  Clynelish 14 (another Diageo single) is $10-$20 cheaper.  If you can find Oban at $60 or less, grab one.  If you find it for more than $70, look elsewhere.
Rating - 88

Wedding Anniversary 02

Two years ago today.

Kristen and I really only celebrate our anniversary on March 13th, the start of our relationship.  Last year, it seemed odd to hit the reset button after seven full years together.  But June 20, 2010 was the most joyous day we've shared, especially since we were able to experience it with so many loved ones.

Life has been a trip ever since.  I'm forever blessed to be sharing this adventure with her.

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)