Oban 19 year old, The Manager’s Dram

For the time being, Wednesdays will be dominated by a number of Old & Rare whiskies. And after I started last week with this Glenfiddich 1968, today is the turn of the Oban 19 year old, The Manager’s Dram. And there will be more Manager’s Drams coming soon.

The Manager’s Dram was basically a series of bottlings chosen by competition between the distillery managers of United Distillers (now Diageo). All whiskies were tasted blind and after everyone had communicated their choices, the winner was determined. I don’t think it is necessary to say that it often resulted in very beautiful bottlings.

The downside, however, is that these bottles have never been officially available, but were bottled for United Distillers staff. So the only way to get hold of these was at auction houses, where they still pop up regularly today. You can imagine the prices of these bottles have therefore increased considerably in the last few years.

This Oban has matured in a refill cask and is bottled at 59.8% ABV.

Oban 19 year old tasting notes:

Nose: orange peels and quite a lot. Then honey, which is quickly followed by a whiff coconut. Grapefruit in the back. Green apples and vanilla. Water directs it a bit more towards grassy notes and fresh green leaves. more towards the grassy tones and fresh green leaves. But there’s also a light cheese note.

Taste: oranges and it’s somewhat salty. Vanilla again which is followed by heather. Green apples and lime. Caramel. A hint of grapefruit. A pinch of black pepper too. Water brings out honey.

Finish: long with coconut and caramel. A hint of pepper. A vegetal note, but can’t define what exactly it is. With water also a hint of spearmint appears.

Really good! An old school Oban, one in the category: they don’t make them like this anymore!