Oban Young Teddy

Young Teddy is one of Oban's named distillery bottlings in the Macleans series, sold to visitors in a run of 4542 bottles. It comes from the small urban distillery in the bay town of Oban, in production since 1794 and among Scotland's smallest working distilleries, still running a single pair of tiny stills in the heart of the town.

The whisky carries no age statement and was aged in ex-Bourbon oak, soft wood that shows the distillery character clearly. Oban's spirit is made slowly through the distillery's small stills and condensed in worm tubs nested between the roofs, the ample copper contact tempering it into the soft, fruity make that defines the house. Like the other Macleans bottlings it carries a personal name in place of an age statement, a visitor bottling that trades on a fuller strength and the clean West Highland make rather than on its years.

Bottled at a fuller 50.8%, it is warm and coastal. Vanilla rises from the lignin in the toasted wood, the lactones lend a coconut and cream note, and the cask frames honey, orchard fruit and citrus over Oban's clear sea salt. A wisp of light smoke runs through a long, gently salty finish, easing open with a drop of water.