There go the apple blossoms... ephemeral but memorable. Now it's viburnums with their heavy odor, almost noxious, like overdone hand creams, and lilacs with their lighter pervading fresh scent, the smell of mauve. Irises are just starting to pop too, with their silver, glittery scent, almost like perfumed steel.
While the earth is doing her thing we are doing ours', pouring ourselves some Oban Little Bay. Oban 14 did OK with us last summer. We all found something unique and interesting but I don't think anyone put it on their hitlist of bottles to seek out. We'll see how this younger sibling does. 43% ABV, $100 CAD, Highland, sherry hogshead and smaller (quarter?) casks.
We sniff around:
Trevor starts us off with floral and apples. Simon gets a bouquet of berries. Scott is ready to go, he drops maraschino cherries, nectarines, strawberries, and red liquorish. It's a lighter sweeter citrus, hence the nectarines. Simon likes the nectarine note, it's got almost a Grand Marnier scent. Sean and Trevor are excited about the red liquorish note. This is a rich nose.
We cheers.
Trevor starts us off with cinnamon hearts.
Simon says there's a fruitiness to it. Liqueur kind of thing going on. A little of that nectarine note we had on the nose. Little salty. Little nuttiness. Little butterscotch.
Scott gets the salty, the fruity, and a little sourness too. The whole thing gives it a sour keys feel. He gets the sweet citrus still and the strawberries. Not the red liquorish.
The finish is pretty non-existent. There's a warmth and a few flavors that stick around for a few seconds but it's short lived. Easy drinking.
Sean pulls a milk chocolate note. He gets a little gingerale aftertaste. We like that.
Reviews: Trevor's pick. There's a few cool notes, but nothing that gets him excited. He's worried his allergies are throwing him off but based on his experience right now it's a 65. Simon thinks this is really good. It's got full flavors, decent balance, interesting. Something you might very well see on his shelf. He lands on 79. Sean would like a bigger finish but he likes this. Goes 77. Kyle thinks it's alright but the cinnamon hearts note throws it off for him, uneventful finish. He hates cinnamon hearts. 67. Scott gives this an 81. He thinks this a great scotch, good flavors that aren't boring. Easy drinking. He's going to come back to it. Averages out to 73.8.
Overall: This is slightly controversial. A couple of us would recommend it, a couple wouldn't. It doesn't have much flavor overlap with Oban 14. Definitely a good deal of cask influence on this one whereas Oban 14 was more distillate flavors.
Cheers!
The S&P Crew
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