Scotland, Western Highlands. Distillery operational. Owner: Diageo

Found in the centre of the town of the same name, Oban has developed a solid reputation since joining the Six Classic Malts range in 1988. Whilst its rise to glory has been less spectacular than that of Lagavulin and Talisker, it is no less legitimate, thanks to bottlings released under the Distillers Edition and Manager's Dram labels, and its vintage bottlings, including an outstanding Oban 32 Year Old 1969 and a 20 Year Old 1984. With a very modest production capacity (approx. 700,000 litres of spirit per year) compared to its colleagues - 1.2 to 2.3 million litres of spirit per year), Oban's owners take special care to ensure the sustainability its stocks.

An Oban 12 year old from the 1970s imported to Italy by Essevi, Milan. This is one of the first official bottlings of Oban, following a fairly similar decanter in the 1960s. Another decanter with a different shape from the same period also exists. Oban was only really promoted as a single malt following the launch of the Classic Malts in 1988 with the arrival of the Oban 14 Year Old, which is still very popular today.