Oban Distillers Edition: US vs European version

[newmiramax]

I have a question: to your expertise, is it true that Oban Distillers Edition distributed in the US is different than the one in Europe?

I tried Oban Distillers Edition 98 in Italy this summer and it was outstanding. Smokey notes, I just could not stopped drinking it.

I purchased a bottle in Los Angeles (where I live), same vintage, and I don't like it! completely tasting notes.

Some people have told me that Oban does a different version for the American market, less smoke and more vanilla. I called Oban distillery but nobody knows anything about it (or at least they act like they dont). I sent an email to Diageo but no reply.

So my question: to your expertise, is it true that Oban Distillers Edition distributed in the US is different than the one in Europe?


If so, do you know if Talisker and Caoil Ila do the same? making a different version for the american market.

Thanks All!

[Quaich1]

An interesting question. I don't have an answer for you specifically for you germaine to the Oban issue. However, your query raises a more general issue IMO. Many single malt scotches that are on offer in the UK make it to the Canadian market here in Ontario through the LCBO.
The LCBO is government run and any new whisky including single malts coming into this country for sale at the LCBO have to go through lab quality control testing in this country and sometimes there are also slight variations in labelling before they can go on the shelves of the LCBO. Sometimes, certain expressions of a distillery become available here that are not available at all in the UK like Highland Park 10. However, back to the point which stems from your question, should a specific expression from a distillery be the same or taste the same if released in Europe versus release in North America, Canada or USA? In my experience, the answer is "yes" for Canadian imports of of OB (offical bottlings) of single malt scotches. Now sometimes, there can be independent bottlings from a distillery that can taste differently from OB's. (for example if you compare a Port Ellen official bottling to an independent bottling of the same year. This can often come down to selected cask. Hopefully, you will get more replies on this very interesting thread.
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"Always carry a large flagon of whisky in case of snakebite and furthermore always carry a small snake."
W.C. Fields (1880-1946)

[opelfruit]

Crossed wires mate.

I believe Oban do a US bottling of the 18 year old, in fact, I'm not even sure we get the 18 year old in the UK - I've never seen it. I'm pretty sure it's a US market only release, and it's limited stock.
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"Too much of anything is bad, but too much good whisky is barely enough."

[William]

To my knowledge the Oban Distillers Edition distributed in the US is the same whisky you will find in Europe. I have never heard of a different Distillers Edition done for the US market. Each bottle carries a year/vintage so no 2 vintages will be identical. It will be bottled in small batches and by its very nature no two batches of Oban single malt whisky will be 100% identical. With each batch being small it is possible that you will find different batches in different markets. Where sherry casks are used it is always possible for weaker sherry influence in some batches or a duff sherry cask or two finding there way into a batch and tainting the whisky, although it doesnt sound like that is the case here. Perhaps you were unlucky and got a bottle from a bad batch.

In 2008 Oban did release a limited edition Oban 18 year old which was only available in the USA and at the distillery shop, this was a limited release of 8778 bottles.

In May 2010 Oban released a limited distillery shop exclusive edition of Oban Distillers Edition, unlike the regular Distillers Edition bottlings, this was offered at natural cask strength, and carried no age statement. This distillery shop exclusive Oban Distillers Edition came from a number of special casks that had been intended for bottling as Distiller's Editions but were found to be surplus to requirements, and had been sitting in Oban's warehouse ever since. Like the standard Distillers Edition, these casks had undergone a second (or "double') maturation in American Oak cask wood that has previously held a fortified wine - in this case, Montilla Fino sherry treated American oak casks.

In 2013 a Oban 21 year old was released as part of the Diageo 2013 Special Releases. This Oban 21 year old was matured in rejuvenated American Oak and a second fill ex-Bodega casks. Limited to 2860 bottles and bottled at a cask strength of 58.5% ABV.
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There's no bad whisky. Just good whisky and better whisky.

[Quaich1]

Hi William. Great post!
_________________
"Always carry a large flagon of whisky in case of snakebite and furthermore always carry a small snake."
W.C. Fields (1880-1946)

[newmiramax]

It seems the bottles for the U.S. market have a size of 0.75 litres in contrast to the 0.7 litres in Europe. So it is possible that the bottlings have been done with different content. It is quite an effort to change the mechanics of the bottling line to a different bottle size.

[Alexppp]

The size of the bottles doesn't have anything to do with it, it's always 0.75l in the States and Canada vs. 0.7 in the UK. Quite often some bottlings have a different strength - for example some malts that are bottled at 40% ABV for the UK market can be found at 43% in the US. But as William said your example is probably due to natural variation between batches rather than a deliberate attempt to make batches different.