Oban Little Bay

Oban Little Bay. Translates to Little Bay Little Bay. This is Oban's NAS "budget" offering. I'll call it a budget offering, but the reality is that this leagues better than most single malts relegated to this category. Let's get into it. Nose: Honey, floral, and fruity. Lots of honeydew, pear, green apple, apricot, and orange. Plenty of toffee and malt. Touch of brown sugar. Some walnut and almond, and a touch of plum. Another sweet note that I can't quite place. Akin to jelly. Really no salinity or smoke. A touch of oak and a complete absence of ethanol. Extremely pleasant and approachable, yet also full. Palate: Kicks things up a notch from the nose. The walnut and roasted almond come in strong. Now there's a bit of salt, but it's table salt instead of the expected sea salt. Still very floral. Caramel, vanilla, milk chocolate, brown sugar, and graham cracker. Still plenty of orange, pear, apple, apricot, and honeydew. Clove, nutmeg, and oak provide spice. Very nice, dangerously drinkable. Finish: Vanilla and milk chocolate. Orange and apricot. Clove, nutmeg, cinnamon and oak add more spice. Still very easy-going, but brings some extra intensity. Moderate-length. I didn't leave any room for suspense. I think this is a really good whisky without considering price. And if you take the latter into account, this is an absurdly good value. I paid $40 for this, and I can confidently say that there are no Scotch whiskies that can even compete with this that I've ever seen for $40 or less. This is one hell of a deal. I compared this to my bottle of 2018 Oban DE. The latter won that comparison. Not by a wide margin, but it is was quickly evident that that is my preferred Oban expression. This definitely has a place in the lineup though. It punches well above its price point. I noticed "Small Cask" printed on the packaging. After doing a little research, it seems that this is Oban's answer to Laphroaig Quarter Cask, another one of my favorites. Whatever they've done here, it's resulted in a damn fine product. One of the truly remarkable examples of bang-for-buck in the whisky world.

Beautiful and sweet fruit with mild spiceyness.

Nose: honey, caramel, toffee, sweet, very mild peat, toasted oak, salty Palate: sweet, mild peat, spicy, honey, salty Finish: long finish, spicy, lingering hints of honey and peat Very good. More barrel influence than I usually get in a scotch.

A simple little dram. Honey and figs mellow in the glass. Easy to sip and easy to enjoy.