Oban Distillery Exclusive Bottling Batch 01

This is Batch 01 of Oban's Distillery Only Bottling, a limited release sold mainly to visitors, this run reaching 6000 bottles. It comes from the little distillery on the Oban shore founded by John and Hugh Stevenson in 1794, one of the country's oldest surviving distilleries, set in the heart of the Oban harbour.

The whisky carries no age statement and was aged in ex-Bourbon oak, soft wood that lets a delicate spirit speak for itself. Oban's make is built on a long ferment and an unhurried distillation through the distillery's small stills, condensed in hot external worm tubs whose ample copper contact keeps it mild, fruity and clean. Distillery bottlings like this are released in larger runs than the hand fills but still sold mainly to visitors, a way for the small distillery to offer something beyond its core range.

Bottled at 48%, a touch above the standard strength, it is bright and coastal. Lignin breakdown in the cask brings vanilla, the wood lactones give a creamy coconut, and the cask frames honey, citrus and orchard fruit over Oban's salt spray. A wisp of smoke runs through a long, malty finish.