Oban 11 Years Old The Soul of Calypso

The Soul of Calypso was Oban's entry in Diageo's 2023 Special Releases, an 11 year old that takes the distillery somewhere unusual with a rum cask finish. The make is pure West Highland, from the small distillery the Stevenson brothers dating from 1794 in the little bay on the Argyll coast, still working on two of the smallest stills in Scotland.

After its years in American oak, the whisky was finished in casks that had held rum, wood that carries soft tropical and sugar notes rather than sherry fruit. The spirit is distilled slowly and condensed in hot worm tubs for plenty of copper contact, giving the mild, fruity base that takes the rum influence so readily. Rum casks carry sugars and esters quite unlike sherry or bourbon wood, which is why a rum finish pushes a whisky toward banana, pineapple and soft molasses rather than dried fruit.

Bottled at a natural 58%, it is sweet and lively. The rum casks bring banana, pineapple and a soft brown sugar sweetness, while vanillin from the broken down lignin adds vanilla underneath. Those tropical notes play against Oban's honey, orange peel and salt spray, with a soft smoke and a long, sweet and faintly briny finish.