Oban 2015

The Oban Distillery is located in the lovely little town Oban. Most of the distilleries in Scotland are situated on the country or outskirts of their towns and cities, but Oban Distillery is right in the middle of Oban. Back in 1794 when the distillery received its license there was not much of a city, but as time went on, a city appeared around the distillery.

I just went on a normal tour that includes a tour around the distillery, a glass and tasting of two different Oban whiskies for the price of £8. We were a group of 14 attending the tour. It was pretty classic except you don’t get to see the actual working malt mill, only an old display model, and you don’t get to see the warehouse. Another minus is that it is not allowed to take pictures inside the distillery.

The tour guide was a young and friendly lad with his facts straight. After we went through the working distillery, we went to a cask display room where they had rolled in an 11 year old bourbon cask. The guide took a valinch (kind of a big metal straw used to draw whisky samples from the casks) and filled up a jar with whisky straight from the cask. All attending the tour got a glass of this single cask, cask strength whisky at 58,2 % ABV. The absolute highlight of the tour! After this we went to the tasting room at got a classic 14 year old Oban whisky.

A couple of features that is special for Oban, which is worth mentioning:

- They only use bourbon casks, except for some sherry casks that is used to finish the Oban Distillers Edition.

- All of the bourbon casks is used once at another distillery before they are send to Oban Distillery.

- Oban actually started in 1790 as a brewery before it 4 years later became a distillery.

A great tour from a little busy distillery. If there was anything I could give as feedback it would be to include a peek at the warehouse and the working malt mill (if possible), and for God sake, let people take some pictures! Look at this review for an example! It would have been a much more graphical beauty if I had been allowed to take some pictures :-) However, I will rate the tour 6/10.