Whiskey for Pi Day

Oban 14 Year is quite the crowd-pleaser and is found everywhere from your local pubs to serious whisky bars. Its fans might be surprised to hear it hails from one of the smaller distilleries in Scotland. Also small are the size of their pear-shaped stills. Oban, a seaside town built around the distillery, is actually named after the distillery and not the other way around. The surrounding environment clearly has influenced its namesake whisky as the sea is the signature footprint of Oban whiskies.

A US limited release beginning Fall 2016, this is a triple-distilled single malt expression from Tullamore D.E.W. This Irish whiskey has aged 14 years and was finished in four different types of casks: bourbon, oloroso sherry, port, and madeira casks. Bottled at 41.3% ABV.

This distillery on the Isle of Arran, the only one on the isle, opened in 1995. Arran actually has a warm micro-climate for Scotland which speeds the maturation. This 14 year old bottling is aged in ex-bourbon for the first 12 years and then the final two years in fresh bourbon casks and fresh sherry casks. This sees no peated malt.

This is a single malt whiskey which is triple-distilled. It is a marriage of single malt whiskeys from the same distillery aged at least 14 years in a combination of ex-bourbon and Oloroso sherry casks. This whiskey is non chill-filtered and no coloring is added.

This bottling is aged traditionally in used American barrels for 14 years and then finished in rum casks, but these casks were seasoned by The Balvenie themselves. They selected different rums from the West Indies and poured them into new American oak to season the wood. They then take their aged whisky and finish aging in the seasoned rum casks. Incidentally, this method actually further ages the rum which they can then sell back. Classic!

An oft overlooked gem in the Diageo "Classic Malt Whiskies" collection, this Highland malt is produced on the northeast coast of Scotland in the town of Brora. Brora is also the name of a now closed distillery, which, incidentally, was formally the location of the original Clynelish Distillery. This is a peated whisky, but far less so than the Brora bottlings.

This is a new addition to the brand's permanent line. Officially known as the 14 Year Old Bourbon Barrel Reserve, it's aged for a full 14 years in typical ex-bourbon casks used in the Scotch industry. It's then transferred to be finished in new heavily-charred American oak barrels from Louisville's prominent Kelvin Cooperage, with the intention of imparting more of those deep bourbon qualities into a single malt.

In 2002, The Balvenie began to set aside one week each year to distill heavily-peated whisky. This peated single malt release is a limited, vintage bottling, but it is expected to become an annual release. Matured entirely in American oak. Expected September 2017 release date.

Aged entirely in ex-bourbon casks, this Campbeltown single malt release hit shelves beginning September 2017. It is bottled at 55.8% ABV and 9,000 are available worldwide.