Lowland scotch has its place, I suppose. It's just not my thing. If you forced me to pick a favorite whisky region as a whole, today being Monday, I'd probably go with Highland. Ask me again on Wednesday and you might get a different answer, but it occurred to me it had been quite some time since I'd tasted a new Highland single malt.
Normally, I try my best to avoid chain restaurants. However, we Southside Richmonders are disproportionately burdened by a dearth of local independent restaurant options compared to our neighbors north of the James River. That being said, I've found Firebirds Wood Fired Grill to be a pretty decent steakhouse as far as national franchises go. More upscale than Outback or Longhorn, but not as prohibitively expensive as Morton's or Ruth Chris, Firebirds is one of the few non-pizza restaurants my kids get excited about. Of particular importance to our conversation is their selection of reasonably priced high end single malts. 'After dinner drinks', as they call them. Bring your pipe and slippers.
I have seen my favorite scotch, Lagavulin 16, at many a Richmond restaurant for $30. Firebirds has a 2 ounce pour for $15. However, on this particular day there was another malt that warranted my attention: Oban 14, $12. Much like Talisker, I had heard great things about it, but I always stopped short of dropping the bigger bucks on an entire bottle of an untested malt. $12 I can swallow for a new malt experience. I'll skip dessert.
The first few reviews I did for this blog were heavier into the history of the distilleries. For the most part, I've gotten away from that. Partly because they all start to sound the same, partly because most of them weren't very interesting. Oban (OH-bun), on the other hand, at least offers up some talking points...
The Oban Distillery features a rather sizable oddity nearby, an unfinished Roman-style Colosseum known as McCaig's Tower (aka 'McCaig's Folly'). Unfortunately, it has about as much archaeological significance as Foamhenge. Historically, the Romans never got a foothold this far north in Britain, building Hadrian's Wall rather than deal with the 'barbarian' Picts and other northern tribes of early Highlanders (ask a "Game of Thrones" fan about that one). Rather, McCaig's Tower was built circa 1897 as a public works project for local stonemasons. The 'tower' now serves as the town's public garden. Ironically, considering its proximity to the distillery (the two are often pictured together), alcohol is forbidden inside.
Around the same time John Stuart McCaig was overseeing his colosseum erected, the distillery next door found itself at the center of a major scandal whose ripple effect is still evident 100 years later. The erstwhile owners of the Oban Distillery (among others), the Pattison Brothers, were overly enthusiastic in the entrepreneurial spirit of the Scotch Boom of the 1890's. They amassed a crippling amount of debt through conspicuous consumption, financial mismanagement, creative bookkeeping, and good old fashioned fraud and embezzlement that nearly took out Scotland's whisky industry with them once it all imploded in 1898. Occupy Malt Street, anyone? Oof, needs work.
The lasting result of the Pattison financial kerfuffle was the emergence of Distillers Company Limited, who was able to swoop in and acquire many of the Pattison's foreclosed properties and bankrupted suppliers and clients for pence on the pound. DCL eventually became Diageo, worldwide leader in terms of market share (35%) of the scotch industry (as well as half the other bottles in your liquor cabinet). To this day, Diageo has retained ownership of the Oban Distillery, the smallest in its empire.
I can pick out maltiness on the palate no problem, less so from the aroma. Not this time, front and center. Smoke is content with lingering in the background. Maritime salt air with a hint of seaweed baking in the sun. Not particularly sweet on the nose, which is a good thing in my book. A cinnamon applesauce note wafted in eventually. I spend a fair amount of time preparing children's food, so there's probably a more eloquent way to describe its aromas of fruit and spice.
The flavors hit me with everything I would ask of a seaside Highland malt. Thick, full maltiness with just enough peat smoke to register. A nice balance between the briny notes and the fruity sweetness. Green olive? What I took for cinnamon earlier now seems more like star anise, vaguely medicinal. Rich, dense, warming. The finish was long and dry, with a lingering oak flavor.
I cannot offer any superlatives amongst the malts I've tried necessarily; however, in any given category I would consider Oban 14 to be stiff competition. I never did find anything about it that I didn't like (pardon the double negative). I still don't know about dropping $79.90 on a full bottle of the stuff, but if you are headed to Firebirds, this a more than worthy companion to your medium rare New York strip.
Overall Grade: 91/100, A-
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