Oban Distillers Edition 15 Years Old 2000

This 15 year old comes from a 2000 vintage bottled in 2015, the Distillers Edition the line that finishes Oban in Montilla Fino casks. It is from one of Scotland's oldest and smallest distilleries, dating from 1794 in the fishing port of Oban and still running its single pair of little stills.

Ex-Bourbon maturation came first, then a finish in the driest, palest sherry. Oban's make rests on a lengthy fermentation and gentle distillation, the spirit cooled in worm tubs kept hot to lift the copper contact, which holds it light and fruity beneath the dry sherry. Because Fino spends its life under a protective raft of flor, it never picks up the dark, raisined sweetness of an oxidative sherry, and the cask passes that dryness and nuttiness on to the whisky.

At 43% the balance falls to the dry, saline side. The flor dried cask offers almond, a nutty edge and a coastal salt, a faint bread note rather than raisin, the oak adding light vanilla. Honey, citrus and salt spray sit beneath, gentle smoke threading a long, lightly nutty finish. The first vintage of the new century in the line, and true to its Fino signature throughout.