Oban 11 Years Old Hand Filled Distillery Exclusive Batch 5

This Batch 5 hand filled bottling is one of the distillery only bottlings filled and labelled by visitors at Oban, a batch sibling to the sherry influenced Batch 6 but matured differently. It comes from the small urban distillery in the harbour town of Oban, in production since 1794 and among Scotland's smallest working distilleries.

Ageing took place in soft ex-Bourbon oak alone, the soft wood that shows the distillery character most plainly. The make is distilled gently through the lamp shaped stills and cooled in worm tubs nested between the roofs, the generous copper contact tempering it into Oban's gentle, fruity make before the cask adds its sweetness. Keeping to bourbon wood alone shows the distillery character at its most direct, the cask adding sweetness and vanilla without the darker fruit a sherry butt would bring to the spirit.

Bottled at a natural 57.5%, it is clean and bright. The oak's broken down lignin lends vanilla, the oak lactones add a creamy coconut note, and the bourbon wood frames honey, lemon and orchard fruit against Oban's clear saline edge. A faint wisp of smoke carries a long, briny finish that softens with water.