A hogshead of hooch helps the Oban lifeboat
When Oban Distillery celebrated its bicentenary in the 1990s it gifted a hogshead – 250 litres – of whisky to the local RNLI. And no, they didn’t drink it. Far more sensibly, they stored it in a darkened warehouse to mature for eighteen years, with an eye to their own 40th anniversary in 2012.
Bottling and packaging of the unique single malt Oban Lifeboat whisky is being done by Douglas Laing and Company Ltd of Glasgow, and the first two bottles of 297 were sold on 19th March at Mulberry Bank Auction House in Glasgow. The auctioneers had expected it to fetch £140-£180 per bottle, but each one sold for £260.
At 49.7% alcohol by volume, the whisky is destined to become a collector’s item. The auction house, which accepts bids online, has put an estimated sale price on it of £140-£180 a bottle. Ronnie Whiteford, Operations Manager at Oban Distillery, said: ‘It should become a collector’s item as it is unique. I can assure you, from the samples that were drawn from it, that it is absolutely spectacular. It is an absolutely beautiful whisky.’
Oban Lifeboat hopes to make a profit of over £30,000 from the sales of the whisky to help with the station’s crucial lifesaving work. Some of the whisky may be sold at auction, but it is also to be made available locally through the Birchwood Service Station, Oban, from April 9th. Internet buyers will be able to purchase it online from the whisky shop website of the Green Welly Stop, at Tyndrum. See www.thegreenwellystop.co.uk. Slainte!
of a delegation, with the hogshead of whisky in the warehouse
at Oban Distillery.
From left to right, they are Les Stewart, John Hill, Norman MacLeod,
Peter MacKinnon and Billy Forteith.
