The holiday season is always busy, between family visits, parties and overindulgences; however, as much as we miss the festivities, we would be lying if we said we weren’t (at least a little bit) looking forward to getting back to business as usual.
The seasonal celebrations may have involved us sipping more than a couple different scotches and Irish whiskeys, but one that left a particularly strong impact on us was Oban Little Bay.
Admittedly, we’ve had a small love affair with Oban for awhile—for one of us, it was the first scotch we tasted…and fell for instantly. This may or may not have been due to the fact that we were on a tour bus with one of our all-time favourite mandolin players…but that is a story for another post. Another reason we find Oban so delightful is the fact that the distillery is one of the smallest, operating with just two pot stills and producing 650,000 litres of liquid magic yearly.
This whiskey starts out as the famous, lightly seated and bright 14yr-old single malt Oban, then is transferred to, and finished in, new oak casks. This gives Little Bay a copper gold colour with a bold, forward start that opens up and surprised us with a deep, smooth finish. We also enjoyed the spicy clove and citrus notes that came in with the warmth of the whisky. You could add a little splash of cold water to Oban Little Bay—this increases the oiliness of the whisky—but we find it detracts from the spicy finish that we loved so much.
A great value for the price point (where we live, you can get a bottle for around $90), Oban Little Bay goes down easy and leaves us satisfied. It just might be one of the tipples we choose to indulge in come Robbie Burns Day…