Oban 14 Years Old

Oban 14 Years Old is the distillery's flagship and has represented the West Highlands in Diageo's Classic Malts range since that series began in 1987. The make comes from one of Scotland's oldest and smallest distilleries, founded in 1794 by the brothers John and Hugh Stevenson in the harbour town that grew up around it, where just two tiny stills still run.

Long fermentation of a clear wort builds a fruity base, then slow distillation on tiny lantern stills feeds short lyne arms into hot worm tub condensers outside the still house. That generous copper contact tempers the heavier worm tub character into a mild, rounded spirit, which then spends fourteen years in ex-Bourbon American oak by the sea. The flagship has stayed at fourteen years and 43% for decades, a fixed point that lets drinkers know the house style at a glance.

Bottled at 43%, it is the textbook West Highlander, sitting between island smoke and Highland sweetness. The oak's broken down lignin lends vanilla, its oak lactones bring a soft coconut, and the cask sweetness frames honey, orange peel and dried fig against a clear salt spray and a wisp of soft smoke. The finish is long, malty and faintly briny.