A Whisky Adventure: Glengoyne & Oban

I’m back on here again and, as promised, this next blog entry will be all about my recent trip north of the border in search of great drams.

Last November in the almost constant rain, I set off up the M6 / A74(M) on my third whisky adventure. Did I venture to Islay? No, that was the year before. How about the easily accessible lowlands? Nope, that was our first trip. How about the legendary Speyside? Too cliché? No, just too bloomin' far! Instead I did a round robin of just about everywhere else. These next blogs will describe my mini adventure to Glengoyne, Oban, Tobermory and the wonderful, wonderful town of Campbeltown!

So, off we went one Saturday morning in mid-November, on our way to our base, the lovely and picturesque Portsonachan Hotel on the banks of Loch Awe (more about that later…). We decided we would take a detour on our way up to stop off at a distillery. As we had already visited the wonderful Auchentoshan the next logical place to head for was Glengoyne, just north of Glasgow.

Glengoyne

After multiple wrong turns around central Glasgow (entirely my fault for not following the Sat Nav properly), we finally arrived at Glengoyne in the pitch black and teaming down rain just in time for the last tour of the day. Glengoyne is set in a stunning location right on the Lowlands/Highlands border. The road that runs alongside it is the border, meaning that the car park and warehouse are technically Lowlands and the distillery itself is technically Highlands, albeit only just! Once you are there, it seems hard to believe that you are only half an hour away from central Glasgow as the countryside around here seems very picturesque and decidedly rural. Along with Auchentoshan, the proximity of this distillery to “civilisation” as it were means that there really is no excuse not to visit and take a tour and have a taste! It is clear from the tour buses and sheer volume of people here that I am not the first to make this assertion. It’s great to see so many people here who are not “die hard” whisky enthusiasts. I am always tempted at times like this to turn my nose up at these fair-weather whisky drinkers but this is of course nonsense. This is exactly what you want to see, more people who do not class themselves as whisky drinkers getting into the spirit. It’s all well and good me acting all superior and playing whisky top trumps but that really isn’t the point. This is a drink not MENSA! 

Glengoyne are a slick operation. They clearly cater for a lot of these bus tours and as a result are set up to offer that more polished experience. The visitor centre / tasting rooms are very well finished and look really very smart indeed. You are greeted by the team all in their own tartan colours and led up to a room where you are given a dram of their 12YO and shown a short video of the process of making whisky, the importance of Glengoyne's location and a bit more about what Glengoyne is all about. The tour itself was good, if rather safe. Glengoyne place a lot of importance on the fact that their stills are the slowest in Scotland. In theory, this should increase copper contact and create a lighter base spirit. They also take pride in the fact that they are 100% unpeated. Letting the spirit and the wood do all the talking. This will always be a tough thing for a peat-head such as me to hear but nevertheless, variety is the spice of life! It wasn't a particularly hands-on tour (limited chances to take pics, no chance to taste the new make etc etc) but was pleasant enough. To be honest after 18 months since my last trip to a distillery it worked well as a refresher for the ones to come!

We took the "Wee Tasting Tour" Saccharine name? I'll let you decide. This meant that in addition to the 12YO we got to try the 18YO expression. Both whiskies were good, very pleasant entry level whiskies which for me were more reminiscent of a good Speysider than anything else. The 12YO has a very floral and light nose with hints of citrus fruit. The palate remains very light and fresh with just a hint of burnt toffee coming through. The finish doesn't linger too much and again you get a bit more of that toffee and perhaps a hint of vanilla. A very pleasant dram! Moving on to the 18YO and I must confess that I was surprised to find that I preferred the younger expression. Such a delicate and floral whisky didn't seem to benefit so much from the extra time in wood for me. Don't get me wrong, it was still perfectly quaffable but I feel that some of the subtlety of the spirit was lost. The nose is far spicier with just a hint of those fruits, but they are less citrussy and more ripe apples. The palate is quite rich and treacley with hints of liquorice and dried fruits. The finish is a little longer than the 12YO with those dried fruits again and perhaps a hint of spice. Perfectly pleasant and more after dinner than aperitif, but for me I'd take the 12YO anytime!

Oban
As I've already mentioned, our base for our trip was the very pleasant Portsonachan Hotel on the banks of Loch Awe. This was an ideal place for access to a number of distilleries, but importantly it wasn't too long a drive to Oban and on to Mull. Oban Distillery is the beating heart of this frankly stunning little highland port. I was sad in retrospect that we didn't book a night here. What a lovely little town! We had visited Torquay earlier in the year and there was something about the town that reminded me of there. After a pleasant stroll around the town and a bite to eat (a lovely Ploughman's Lunch) we headed off to the distillery for our tour. Again Oban is well equipped for tourists and is by no means an off-piste distillery. Diageo have done a great job here in creating a very pretty little visitor centre complete with bar, tasting staves, nibbles etc. It was really very nice. This time we started with the tastings. We did the standard tour but added a stave of 4 different expressions along with some crystallized ginger (it enhances the flavour apparently...). The stave included the standard 14YO, the new NAS Little Bay, The Distillers Edition and The Distillery Only Bottling. Overall a great range of really fine whiskies!

We started off with the Oban Little Bay as this was the lightest of the selection and I must say we were mightily impressed. This is a proper gem of a whisky. Another example that age isn't everything as this NAS beauty can more than hold its own! We spent a long time comparing and contrasting this with the classic Oban 14YO and I have to say it held up so well that it was a bottle of this that we brought home with us. Little Bay makes a great light aperitif whisky. The spirit itself for me is faintly reminiscent of The Classic Laddie or perhaps an Aberfeldy 12 (both of which I really enjoy). A good, well rounded light whisky. the nose is clean and light with just a hint of vanilla and is that apricots? The palate is fuller than you might expect with a sweetness of the vanilla and more ripe fruits really coming through. There is just a hint of smoke in there too. The finish isn't too lingering but it's sweet and quite moreish. A good solid dram for the money! 

So, moving on to the aforementioned Oban 14YO. A whisky that hardly needs any introduction as a stalwart of the Diageo classic malts range since it's inception. I often feel that Oban gets overlooked in favour of it's more famous stablemates of Talisker and Dalwhinnie which I think is a mistake. This whisky is a really great all rounder. A true coastal highland malt. Rich, smokey, slightly briney but sweeter than the northern bunch (Highland Park etc). I think if I was to pick a whisky to introduce a novice of whisky to, this would have to be in the mix. So, I know you all know it anyway, but here are my thoughts on tasting! The nose is rich and sweet, like vanilla, treacle and Christmas cake. The palate is bigger than the Little Bay but still contains that vanilla and ripe fruits. The smoke is a bit more pronounced and it just tastes a bit bigger somehow. Finally it has a great, well rounded finish with marzipan and more dried fruits. Lovely!

Next up was The Distillers Edition. Essentially this is an Oban 14YO that is then finished in Montilla Fino  casks and boy, what a difference that finish makes! The nose is bigger, with the sherry notes hitting you straight away. It's richer and sweeter with earthy chocolate notes coming through. The palate is well rounded and rich with the Fino balancing out the flavours and making them bigger. The finish is long and sweet. 

Final whisky of the day was the Distillery Only Bottling. And what a fine whisky this is! It's a little steep at around £100 (there were only 6000 bottles made) but it definitely stands up well within that price bracket. I understand this to again be the standard 14YO expression finished in a charred cask then married in a further cask. So, not a lot to go on there! Stark comparisons with Bruichladdich's new transparency policy...Anyways, enough about that. How does it taste? Really damn good is the answer! The nose is super rich (richer even than the Distillers Edition) like Christmas Cake topped with thick custard.  The palate is complex, bold and sweet with vanilla notes coming through alongside brineyness and smoke (everything really!) Overall a really fine whisky and the right dram to round off the tasting.

I think Oban is a really underrated whisky, a perfect balance of coastal brineyness, speyside floralness and highland robustness. I don't think you can go far wrong with any of the 4 whiskies above depending on your taste and the size of your wallet!

Once we had finished our tasting we took a pleasant if unremarkable tour around the distillery. It is a very compact little place with just one pair of small onion-shaped stills (unexpected given the lightness of the spirit) and 4 european larch washbacks crammed into it somehow. After that we just had time to head up the road to the local award winning (albeit from some time ago...) fish and chip shop for a decidedly underwhelming fish supper before heading back down to the docks to book our ferry tickets for the trip over to Mull the next day. It was nearly time for Tobermory!!!

I rather suspect that is enough from me for now. In my next blogs I will wax lyrical about the delights of Tobermory (including an incredible haggis and goats cheese pizza) and of course the ever delightful Campbletown!

Until next time, sláinte!