Oban 18 Year

Blind tasting Nice heat. Mix of spice and orange. Mild peat flavor.

The nose is coastal with some smoke. I get honey and cereal grain. Velvety on the tongue. Very briny and coastal. I get a malty cereal flavor on the tongue with dry smoke and lots of grass. The finish has that velvety feel with dry oak and dry grass. There is a bit of vanilla and a lot of malt.

This stuff is flipping killer- love at first drink. Well... not exactly true.. I was 23 out of school and had a house on a lake (well across the street from a lake) but I had a boat slip and a boat, I felt accomplished then,... well until I spent the next 15 years getting beaten down with the brass knuckles of the real world that turns your optimism, idealism, and scholastic knowledge into bitter bitter wisdom though failure, pain, mistakes, doubt, the relentless pursuit of success - and saying in so many different ways “fuck you - I won’t let this system or any one of you hold me down”. ; so: .. I’m super happy about all of it; having had experiences that many wouldn’t even believe if I told you.. (you might be asking yourself - where is this guy going with this?) when I was 23 I would take the boat over to this fancy restaurant in Michigan called “matter of taste” - at the time they had quite the expensive liquor collection- and better yet; my college roommate and best friend was the bartender there. I recall getting oban (free, and everything else) and I recall liking it (on ice) - but my go to at the time was chivas which I can barely choke down today. I don’t know why I liked it, but it seemed legit- however I was in no mind set to appreciate it like I can today. Here I am 18 years later buying a bottle - and holy crap is it good. The nose is pretty sexy, with a slight butterscotch lemon zest- but the palate; it tastes like s’mores, butterfinger, and raisins. But most excitingly it goes down like a chocolate shake mixed with Cayenne pepper and Coca Cola- fantastic. Smooth upon entry and fireworks on the way down. 👌🏼 I wish I could go back and have a chat with my 23 year old self and say - “lose the ice kid, let it move around your mouth and the whiskey will tell you an amazing story”.