Last summer at Maltstock I got handed my Oban D.O. bottle and I was a happy camper. I bought it from my Eugene, who apparently picked it up and wanted it gone for reasons I don’t understand, I think.

There’s not much information on those Distillery Only bottlings by Diageo, since there is nothing on the label and I haven’t found distillery staff particularly generous with information about them. At Lagavulin and Caol Ila at least.

Sniff:

Oban Distillery Only. Image from Whiskybase.

A trace of peat with quite some oak. Barley, heather and some leather wax. A very definite Highland style dram. Salty with some vanilla. A little bit sharp on the nose, charcoal and wet rope. Lemoncurd without the sweetness to it. After a couple of minutes it becomes somewhat sweeter and fruitier, although the fruit smells rather acidic. Some allspice too.

Sip:
Sweeter and richer than I expected. Some wood, a little bit sharp, spicy with salt and black pepper. Heather and stewed fruits, dry wood, toasted oak. A hint of a rather bitter spice mixture, wood spices with cocoa.

Swallow:
Again, a bit fruitier and I get some mustard seeds. Wood, heather, twigs, barley husks all make up this long finish. Spicy and fruity.

There’s just one word for a whisky like this: Delicious. This is exactly in my current corner and I like the complex highland style of this whisky. There’s just so much going on that I can actually define, and that’s something I like too. When flavours are present but I don’t know them, that annoys me.

I really hope this will be available for a while at the distillery so I might be able to pick it up on my holiday to Scotland. Or that they have a new one.

Oban, available only at the distillery, NAS, OB, 55.2%.