The Makers of Oban
January 29, 2016 1:18 PM   Subscribe

 
Been a while since I've had Oban. I must remedy that.
posted by Ber at 1:28 PM on January 29, 2016


Oban is very drinkable. I too now feel the desire for a bottle.

Mmmmm, Oban Blue.
posted by sektah at 1:37 PM on January 29, 2016


Oh man, Oban. I just finished a bottle of their 2014 Distiller's Edition. I replaced it with a Talisker Storm, which is a fine whiskey, but just not the same...
posted by Itaxpica at 1:41 PM on January 29, 2016


I've been to Oban! It's lovely. I'd like to retire there. But I also hate whisky.
posted by soren_lorensen at 1:59 PM on January 29, 2016


What is Oban? Teletubby wine?
posted by sammyo at 2:00 PM on January 29, 2016 [1 favorite]


I've reached the age where I have a brand. Oban is that brand.

I'm doing the dry January thing, just for shits and giggles. My last drink was champagne at midnight on the 1st. My next drink will be this Sunday, the 31st. It will be a glass of Oban on my couch in my living room, with a fire going. I'm going to take a big sniff with my nose and then slowly sip it with my mouth. I've been looking forward to it all month.

I wish Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally were my neighbors and BFFs and we sat around and did puzzles and drank scotch and made fart jokes all day long.
posted by bondcliff at 2:56 PM on January 29, 2016 [5 favorites]


Oban is lovely, both the town, the whiskey, and the distillery (who do a very good tour). Highest concentration of B&Bs anywhere I've been, especially relative to the town's size, but it didn't feel at all touristy out of season. Lovely people.

It's also only a wee drive from the ferry to Islay, which counts immeasurably in its favour.
posted by Dysk at 3:05 PM on January 29, 2016 [2 favorites]


I'm puttering my way through a bottle of Arran, and I'm enjoying the lack of dead-bodies-and-seaweed that is unpeated scotch.
posted by LD Feral at 3:26 PM on January 29, 2016 [1 favorite]


Scotch sucks. At least, when I don't have any, it sucks.
posted by eriko at 3:35 PM on January 29, 2016 [2 favorites]


What scotch do pirates drink?

Aaardberg.
posted by eriko at 3:36 PM on January 29, 2016 [4 favorites]


Oban is indeed veddy fine, and an excellent propellant for launching oneself off the January wagon. However, it is not a whiskey.

I have thrown in the towel on less/fewer. I am at ease with or without U after O. I believe fervently in the joyous mutation of language in the service of culture.

But Oban is not a whiskey. Hier stehe ich , ich kann nicht anders.
posted by Devonian at 3:39 PM on January 29, 2016 [6 favorites]


I've reached the age where I have a brand. Hm. I've never thought of whisky like this. I don't have a brand; I don't even have a whisky preference (bourbon, Scotch, Irish, rye, Tennessee, even Canadian!). I have a very slight preference for Highlands, amongst the Scotches, but we have probably a dozen single malts on the bar right now. I almost always order Jamesons neat in a bar because it's reliable and reliably-priced.

My father-in-law only drinks one Scotch--a blend--and I was asking him about it, recently because I don't relate to that habit. I can't imagine only having one Scotch (or one whisky), ever. There are too many delights in the variations. I know I will almost certainly never know any one of them so perfectly that I could name it after a single sip, but as long as I like how it tastes, I don't feel that I'm missing out.

The newest Scotch in the bar is Girvan Patent Still. It's quite potent, with lots of vanilla, marzipan and some sherry.
posted by crush-onastick at 3:41 PM on January 29, 2016 [3 favorites]


Trolling protip: Bring a bottle of Coke to a scotch tasting.
posted by eriko at 4:03 PM on January 29, 2016 [8 favorites]


Oban is indeed veddy fine, and an excellent propellant for launching oneself off the January wagon. However, it is not a whiskey.

Quite right. My phone's autocorrect, however, acknowledges only the existence of colonial muck it seems, and not proper whisky.
posted by Dysk at 4:16 PM on January 29, 2016


It has been duly chastened, and correct terminology taught. Thank you for pointing it out.
posted by Dysk at 4:23 PM on January 29, 2016


May I introduce a plug for an excellent distillery tour in the Bay Area I took just last weekend? Yes? Ok, St. George distillery out at the old naval air station at the northern tip of Alameda island. Our guide was most informative and knowledgeable and there was a nice tasting afterward. $20. Bonus: million dollar view of SF and the Bay Bridge.
posted by telstar at 5:11 PM on January 29, 2016 [3 favorites]


Goddamn I'll be glad when Dryuary is over. 3 more days. Probably will spend the first few days with a Whistlepig or a Michter's Rye. I expect I'll move back to a peatey scotch later in the week but Oban's bound to turn up some time in the month of Whiskuary.

What have I learned in a month of not drinking? High end whiskey makes one not a drunk but a connoisseur.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 5:44 PM on January 29, 2016


My wife and I stopped in Oban while on vacation in Scotland a dozen or so years ago. We toured the distillery, then dined in a restaurant above a pub in town. After we finished our dinner, I stepped outside the pub onto one of the quaint cobblestone streets. There my foot slipped between two cobbles and sideways, and I was on my ass, writhing in pain. The locals thought I had stumbled out of the pub pished. Although I'd had a glass of wine with dinner I was sober, though if I had been tippling a bit more I might have fared better in the pain department. Luckily it was only a sprain and we were off to Stirling castle the following day and home the day after.

I did bring home a bottle of whisky from Oban, which I'm sure helped the healing process.

Good times.
posted by SteveInMaine at 5:48 PM on January 29, 2016 [1 favorite]


I was just indulging in a Laphroig as I got to this post, and so I went to my research paper. (Spreadsheet of my last 4 scotch tastings)
I found Oban consistently in the bottom half. Pity.
I seem to prefer the wares of Islay and Skye.
But I guess I'd prefer a bottle of Oban to no bottle at all.
posted by MtDewd at 6:03 PM on January 29, 2016 [1 favorite]


Mmmmm. Oban.
posted by Space Kitty at 6:04 PM on January 29, 2016


Oban was one of the first better whiskys I had, and to me it still tastes like a finger's worth in an old coffee mug around a campfire in the Virginia winter.
posted by a halcyon day at 11:25 PM on January 29, 2016


I seem to prefer the wares of Islay and Skye.
But I guess I'd prefer a bottle of Oban to no bottle at all.


I had occasion to stay with the old master distiller at Ardbeg, and in his words "there is no bad malt whisky, only some that is better".
posted by Dysk at 12:36 AM on January 30, 2016 [2 favorites]


As much as I really love Nick Offerman and scotch whiskey, especially the peatey stuff like Oban, it does still make me increasingly uncomfortable to uncritically chug down multinational beverage industry advertising. Oban is part of Diageo, like Lagavulin with its own Nick Offerman extravaganza here previously, which is a tax avoiding, price fixing, officials bribing conglomerate of evil with a history of rapey advertising.

Beyond that though, these fuckers know exactly what they're really selling with advertisements like this one, and what they're aiming for is not a healthy relationship with alcohol. At least in the US, while most people do have a healthy relationship with alcohol, the top ten percent of drinkers account for way more than half of all alcohol consumed. That is 24 million Americans drinking the equivalent of more than four bottles of Oban a week, or 18 bottles of wine, or three cases of beer. The goal of this advertisement, like basically all big money beverage industry advertisements, is to push more people towards the maintenance phase of alcoholism - its where the money comes from. Every adult they can turn into a connoisseur with a problem means an enormous amount of cash, if that top decide were to find a way to join even just the still heavily drinking 9th decile, the whole industry would collapse overnight with sales dropping by 60%.

As much as I want to be more like Nick Offerman, and fuck who doesn't want to be more like Nick Offerman, it would be hard to argue that he isn't using that power he has over us to make the world a shittier place for what I at least hope is a really big check.
posted by Blasdelb at 3:51 AM on January 30, 2016 [4 favorites]


Single malt scotch would be an insanely expensive way to be in the top percentiles of drinkers...
posted by Dysk at 4:12 AM on January 30, 2016 [1 favorite]


Is there any Scotch that isn't distributed by Diaego, though? I know Lagavulin, Glenmorangie, and my beloved Clynelish* are. It would be nice to get my sip on without supporting evil shitlords, but I do love my whisky.


*A lovely coastal Highland with that delicate honey and fire that I in no way bought because it has a kitty on the bottle.


OK, maybe a little I did.

LOOK AT THAT KITTY HE IS SO MAD

kitty.
posted by louche mustachio at 8:02 AM on January 30, 2016 [2 favorites]


The Girvan is not distributed by Diageo. I don't think Balvenie is, either. Not sure about Jura or Glen Scotia, but I don't see them on the Wikipedia list.
posted by crush-onastick at 8:26 AM on January 30, 2016


All of the Islay distilleries are owned by the multinational conglomerates. If it's not Diageo, it's Inbev. Bruichladdich was the last independent on the island, I think.
posted by gingerbeer at 8:34 AM on January 30, 2016 [1 favorite]


Kilchoman is independent, and I think Bowmore is as well?
posted by Dysk at 8:37 AM on January 30, 2016


Bowmore is owned by Suntory. I think you're right about Kilchoman.
posted by gingerbeer at 9:56 AM on January 30, 2016 [1 favorite]


Yeah, fair enough. I was probably getting Bowmore and Bruichladdich mixed up. But Kilchoman is definitely independent - it hasn't been around long enough to have been bought up, and was very much a small shed operation when I was there a few years ago.
posted by Dysk at 10:18 AM on January 30, 2016


Bruichladdich distillery is owned by Cointreau.
posted by Sys Rq at 5:24 PM on January 30, 2016 [1 favorite]


Also, just a friendly reminder that all this industrial-scale Scotch whisky has been brought to you by the Highland Clearances.
posted by Sys Rq at 5:28 PM on January 30, 2016


My favorite scotch is Yamazaki. I'm sure this has my Scottish ancestors rolling in their graves.
posted by foobaz at 9:40 PM on January 30, 2016


Don't worry about it. Your Scottish ancestors' graves were probably dug out with the peat a long time ago.
posted by Sys Rq at 10:01 PM on January 30, 2016


That's why it tastes so good. Ancestors muddled in the peat.
posted by a halcyon day at 12:05 AM on January 31, 2016 [1 favorite]


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