Oban 11 Years Old Hand Filled Distillery Exclusive 2023

This 11 year old is a hand filled distillery bottling offered to visitors at Oban in 2023, filled and labelled by hand and sold only at the distillery. The make comes from the tiny West Highland distillery in the seafront town of Oban in Argyll, founded in 1794 by the Stevenson brothers and one of the oldest and smallest in the country.

The whisky was raised in ex-Bourbon American oak, soft refill wood that lets a delicate spirit speak for itself. That spirit is distilled slowly through the tiny lantern stills and run into worm tubs run hot for copper contact outside the still house, the extended copper contact keeping it mild, fruity and clean before the cask adds a gentle sweetness. Hand filled bottlings are drawn from a single cask and filled to order at the distillery, so each carries the small variations of its own barrel rather than a blended house profile.

Bottled at a natural 53.7%, it is fresh and direct. Vanilla rises from the lignin in the toasted wood, coconut and cream follow from the oak lactones, and the bourbon cask draws out honey, orchard fruit and citrus over the distillery's coastal salt. A thread of gentle smoke threads a long, malty close, easing open with a drop of water.