Oban 14 Year Old

One of the prettiest bottles/tubes in my cabinet. The drawings of rocks, surf and sea gulls makes one think the contents will be dominated by coastal briny flavours but that doesn’t prove to be the case. I love the tall straight bottle which pours quite a dark amber liquor, although the colour of the whisky might be exaggerated by the contrast with the pale labelling.

The aromas are an odd but appetising combination of fruit (pears and mango), barley malt and a faint hint of petrol. On the palate the true character of this malt comes to the fore, it’s a dry almost stony flavour. Anyone who’s tried their hand at flint napping will be familiar with the smell that comes off the stones after their struck, this malt tastes like that smell. There are plenty of tropical fruit flavours, hints of peat, malt and salt to complete a very interesting mouthful. The finish is medium length, malty and dry.

I can’t think of any other malt that is similar to this, perhaps Clynlish is the closest, but it’s still markedly different. I doubt it’ll ever be that fashionable a flavour profile, it’s not sweet enough, but for a hip flask on a long wilderness walk I can think of nothing I’d rather.

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