One of the things that sets the Oban distillery apart from most
other distilleries is the fact that it's located in the middle of a
busy town, overlooking the harbour. Overlooking the distillery
itself is an interesting 'folly' - a small 'Collosseum'. It was built
during harder times when they had to invent silly projects to
provide jobs for the hungry unemployed masses.

There are some other black pages in the history of Oban.
At the end of the 19th century the distillery was briefly owned
by the Pattison brothers - the whisky fraudsters that became
so famous that they had a crisis named after them. When their
whisky empire collapsed it took dozens of businesses with it.

The Pattisons built their whisky empire with borrowed money and boosted their growth by manipulating
the prices of the stocks of their company. They also dabbled in double bookkeeping and inflated prices of
their products before using them to pay off debts - instead of the cash that investors were hoping for...
Nevertheless, the whisky market was booming and everybody wanted in on it. Between 1890 and 1899
various enterprising spirits built more than 30 new whisky distilleries in Scotland - more than had to be
closed during the 'disastrous' 1980's almost a century later. During the 1890's Oban celebrated its 100th
birthday while distilleries like Ardmore, Balvenie, Benromach, Dalwhinnie and Tomatin were being born.

New distilleries popped up left and right and existing distilleries maximised
and expanded their production capacity. The stocks of maturing whisky in
Scotland were larger than ever before; the amount of whisky annually stored
in Scottish warehouses grew from less than two million gallons around 1891
to 13,5 gallons in 1899. The atmosphere in the 'fin de siecle' whisky world
of the late 19th century was comparable with that of the internet bubble of
the late 20th century. Companies like World Online and Enron could be as
creative as they liked in their bookkeeping; nobody wanted to 'rock the boat'.
 
The bubble burst in December 1898 when Pattisons Ltd. urgently requested
a customer to pick up and pay for whisky stocks he bought. Rumours started
to spread across Edinburgh and an article appeared in 'The Scotsman' about
'The Stoppage of Pattisons (Ltd)'. Shortly afterwards Pattisons Ltd. ceased all
payments. It turned out that their balance sheet wasn't very balanced; their
capital of 40,000 GBP didn't quite outweigh their debts of 743.000 pounds...

When the financial house of cards and mirrors that the
Pattison brothers built came crashing down, the collapse
took many of their partners, suppliers and clients with them.

1) Oban was part of Diageo's original series of 6 'Classic Malts', together with Cragganmore, Dalwhinnie, Glenkinchie, Lagavulin and Talisker. This series was first released in 1988. Around 2005 a bunch of other distilleries were added to the range of 'classic malts'; Caol Ila, Cardhu, Clynelish, Glen Elgin, Glen Ord, Knockando and Royal Lochnagar.

2) Oban is Diageo's second smallest distillery, right after Royal Lochnagar. 

3) Oban is one of less than a dozen active distilleries that can trace its roots back to the 18th century.

4) The 'colosseum' overlooking Oban looks Roman in style, but the Romans never made it this far north.
Also, if it had been built in Roman times, it surely would have been a ruin by now. The building is actually known as 'McCaig's Folly'. A local banker by the name of John Stuart McCaig gave the orders to start construction in 1897. Even though that was around the time of one of the biggest whisky booms in history, unemployment in the area was extremely high. Building McCaig's folly was a job creation sheme as much as it was an act of madness. However, after some 5,000 pounds had been spent the construction stopped and the building was never finished. Maybe that's just as well; it seems McCaig had planned to fill the apertures with statues of his ancestors...
 

I'm afraid I only have fairly rudimentary tasting notes on just a few Oban expressions so far...

Oban 14yo (43%, OB, Bottled +/- 1999) - my third bottle in the 1990's and the first with 'proper' notes
Nose: It almost seemed like a very light Bowmore at first, with light sherry and peaty overtones.
Second whiff: Sweet, then sour. Perfumy, flowery. More versatile than I remembered.
Taste: Sharp start, then sweet, then dry. A little peat. Nice development if you give it enough time.
Score: 77 points - just short of greatness. A bottling from +/- 1994 managed to reach 80 points.

Oban 14yo (43%, OB, Bottled +/- 2005)
Nose: Spicy and grassy. Hints of peat and dust. Fairly flawless, but it lacks some personality.
Taste: Campbeltown characteristics? Seems not too powerful. Hint of something vaguely salty - no peat.
Score: 76 points - Just like earlier batches, it's just a tad too clean and 'bland' for me. Good whisky, though.

Oban 1984 Distillers Edition (43%, OB, Double Matured, Montilla Fino finish, +/- 1999)
Nose: Sherry & peat. Some smoke. Opens up after a few minutes, becoming very rich.
Big and complex; the double maturation has enriched the character of the Oban.
Taste: Smooth start, quickly followed by a nutty and malty burn. Some of the salt of the regular 14 as well.
Here, the double maturation didn't have an obvious effect, but it didn't hurt the whisky either.
Rating: 79 points - Only two points more than the standard Oban 14; enough to justify the price difference?

Oban 20yo Natural Cask Strength (57.9%, OB, Bourbon, 1260 Bottles, Bottled 2004)
Nose: Spicy with a hint of glue. Quite natural. A similar 'profile' to the 14yo from the 90's but more depth.
Taste: Again spicy, this time with some peppers. Once again a relatively 'natural' whisky but I liked it.
Score: 86 points - the profile is similar to the 14yo, but a lot more depth and complexity.

Oban 32yo 1969/2002 (55.1%, OB, from 13 European Casks, 6000 Bottles)
Nose: Rich and sweet with a distant hint of oil. Growing complexity. More and more organics. LOVELY!
Taste: Sweet and fruity. Smooth. The pleasurable effect of wood tannins without a 'woody' feeling.
Score: 90 points - justifyably the 'crown' on the Oban range. Excellent whisky that won't offend anybody.
 

These were not all the (official and independent) expressions of Oban malt whisky I've tried over the years.
My Track Record used to contain a complete overview of all the single malts I've tried, but when I passed the 2000 malts mark (and the complete whisky list wouldn't fit on two separate HTML pages anymore) I gave up. My Liquid Log still contains my tasting notes on most single malts I've sampled and scored, though. You can find a specific expression through the search box at the top of each distillery profile. The mAlmanac now contains (purely personal) selections of some of the best single malts and the worst whiskies I've tried so far - as well as the ones with the highest 'Bang-For-Your-Buck' value. But those tasting notes and scores only reflect my own, purely personal opinions. On Serge's distillery profile on Whiskyfun you can find another perspective on the whisky made at this distillery. Check out the Malt Maniacs Monitor on Malt Maniacs for my scores on all expressions I've tried so far - and those of almost all the other certified malt maniacs as well. The Malt Maniacs Matrix contains a few thousand single malts that were sampled and scored by at least four different malt maniacs, so you can compare our individual opinions.
 
 

Oban was silent between 1931 and 1937 and between 1969 and 1972.
In the late 1960's and early 1970's the stillhouse was rebuilt, and Oban has been continuously active since 1972.
These days a two official bottlings are readily vailable; the 14yo that was first released in 1988 as part of the 'Classic
Malts' and a 'double matured' version with a montilla fino finish that was released in 1998. Apart from these bottlings
the occasional limited release is available. Independent bottings of Oban are extremely hard to find these days. 

When I wrote the first version of this profile in
2005, Oban was one of only fourteen distilleries
in Scotland still using 'worm tubs' to cool the
wash and the spirit. The other distilleries still
using worm tubs are Balmenach, Benrinnes,
Cragganmore, Dalwhinnie, Edradour, Glen Elgin, Glenkinchie, Mortlach, Old Pulteney, Speyburn,
Royal Lochnagar, Springbank (wash still only)
and Talisker. The unique thing about the worm
tubs at Oban is the fact that they are hidden
under the roof. When some maniacs visited
Oban for a tasting in 2005, Willie MacDougall
took us up on the roof for a closer inspection.
 
Meanwhile, he schooled us in the history of the
distillery. Oban is said to have been founded in
1794 by Hugh, John and James Stevenson & Co.
Oban remained in the hands of the Stevenson
family until 1860, after which the distillery had
several different owners. Between 1883 and
1887 the distillery was rebuilt by Walter Higgin.

The Pattisons were certainly not the first Scottish whisky distillers, blenders or
bottlers to boldly venture beyond the restrictive borders of the law. After all, many
of the distilleries in Scotland started their lives as illicit stills. However, when the law
and reality caught up with the Pattisons, the effects were felt throughout the entire
whisky industry. When the dust had settled, one of the companies still standing was
the Distillers Company Limited (DCL). They were the predecessors of the current
whisky giant Diageo, owner of circa 30 malt whisky distilleries in Scotland.
One of the malt whisky distilleries still owned by Diageo is... Oban.