Oban 10 Years Old Coastal Orchard

Coastal Orchard was Oban's contribution to Diageo's 2024 Special Releases, a cask strength 10 year old built to play the distillery's orchard fruit against its coastal edge. It comes from the small urban distillery in the West Highland port of Oban, dating from 1794 and one of the oldest and tiniest in the country.

The whisky was matured in American oak and finished in Oloroso sherry casks, the richer, sweeter style of sherry. The spirit itself is made slowly through the narrow necked pot stills and condensed in the outdoor worm tub condensers, the extended copper contact keeping it soft and fruity before the Oloroso wood wraps it in darker tones. Oloroso is aged without a protective layer of flor, fully exposed to oxygen over years in the solera, which is what builds the dark, concentrated fruit and nutty depth the cask then passes to the whisky.

Bottled at a natural 58%, it is full and sweet. The Oloroso cask's melanoidins give raisin, fig and a walnut depth, residual sugars add a touch of date, and vanillin from the wood lends vanilla beneath the dried fruit. All of it sits over Oban's honey, baked apple and clear salt spray, the finish long, rich and gently smoky.