After quite a few single casks, something more widely available (or was available at the time). Diageo do have some lovely malts at their disposal, and some Distiller’s editions are really nice and add a certain depth to well known staple drams such as the Caol Ila, Lagavulin etc. I have not had many Obans and I think this one will be the very first tasting note for an Oban I’ve ever written here. There’s a first for everything as they say. I did have the OB Oban a few months ago, but did not take notes, gladly I did take notes this time.
Oban 1995 Montilla Fino Finish – Distillers Edition , 43% abv, £48 (sold out)
Nose: Waxy , sweet and a bit of dried apricot sort of fruitiness. Damp soil and wood, giving way to some marzipan.
Palate: Sweet , honey and bitter chocolate with marzipan topping, folowed by honey covers nuts,Apricot jam. Quite creamy.
Finish : Sugary sweet with bitter cocoa and figs.
A very nice sipping whisky, not mind blowing but good stuff, with a nice sweeter edge to it, and figs. not in par with the Excellent Lagavulin DE, or the Coal Ila DE, but still nice.
Score: 83/100
Cheers Josh for the sample!
I think you nailed it, Gal. I had the odd experience of hating this at first. It was very closed in with little amplitude – even after extensive air. I put the bottle away and forgot about it for a month or two and then tried it again and it had been transformed into the sweet, waxy, earthy whisky you tasted. Oban is a hybrid of coastal and Highland flavor influences. There a bit of peat and some salty and mineral notes – and also a good bit of sweetness. The DE adds the Montilla sherry influence which is subtle – but amps the sweetness further and ups the gentle apricot. I actually applaud the distiller’s choice to use this light sherry rather than a stronger variety like Olorosso. All in all, I felt that this was a decent step up from the standard issue Oban. Oban the only distillery in Scotland that Diageo owns that they don’t use for blends. It’s an urban distillery that has pretty low output. That (and its popularity) combine to make it pretty expensive. The standard issue runs $60-$70 in the US and the DE runs $80-$90. That’s probably too steep for the quality in absolute terms – but I still buy it anyway. Something about the flavor signature of Oban reminds me of laboratory bone specimens and it’s a flavor I bizarrely instinctively crave.
Lovely whisky. I own such a bottle – bought it in Luton airport in UK, it was fairly cheap compared to Israeli whisky prices (DE for 46.99GBP, where the Lagavulin DE was only 49.99GBP)
reading this blog entry again just before going to sleep, I decided to pour myself a wee dram of this lovely whisky. delicious 🙂 thanks for the reminder. 🙂