Drinking Oban Malt Whiskey
A few years ago, when we were still travelling, I spent some very happy weeks in Scotland, and some weeks a year later.
We spent some time in Pitlochry, a favourite resort for Queen Victoria and where Felix Mendelssohn did some great sketching when he visited. I think people drew and sketched where we now take photographs, and I hadn’t known how good Mendelssohn was at art as well as music. We stayed in Dufftown, a smallish town that’s in the heart of whisky country – Speyside that is. All the glens seem to be there – Glenfiddich, Glenallachie, Glen Grant, Glenfarclas, Glen Moray, and heaps of non-glen others. I like the style of these whiskies a lot. They’re lighter, sometimes with fruity or floral or nutty characters, and they are for me much easier drinking than the heavy peaty whiskies which I do not care for at all.
In Dufftown there was a pub whose walls were lined with malt whiskies. Have a sniff of anything, let me know what you like, and I’ll pour you a glass said the man behind the bar. He then asked me what I had been drinking, what age whisky I liked, and smiled. I can do you better than that. And he poured me a 16-year-old Abelour, which was richer and smooth than the whisky I had named. I loved it, and bought a bottle.
We kept travelling, and got to Oban, on the west coast. The town grew around the distillery, which is very close to the sea, and we did a tour and tasting. Another bottle bought: a bottle of the Distillers Edition. For all that I like whisky, I rarely drink it, so there is still some of this left. For me, it’s very special – the qualities I like in Speyside whiskies, but then some. This is more complex, with hints of sea and a suggestion of smoke. It makes me think of sitting on a beach at dusk, with a fire burning cleanly. It’s what I drink when I’m feeling very blue, and I smell it and sip it and it’s so satisfying in its flavours and warmth that I cheer up.