Pairing Oban 14 With Distilled, The Game

The Whiskey: Oban 14

Is there any more quintessential whiskey than a single malt scotch? The Oban 14 has long been a staple of highland single malts, and there’s a good reason for that. It’s accessible and captures much of what people love in single malts, without asking too much with price or availability. On the nose, I take in malt, light oak, honey, citrus, something almost akin to wildflowers, and light caramel – delicious, inviting, and warm. On the palate, it reminds me of something akin to a sweet baked bread – not sugary sweet, like bourbon, but more like the sweet bread your grandma would make. Like the nose, there’s a beautiful warmth here that invites further exploration. The finish is medium-length, primarily carrying the malt and oak notes.

I like to always have a whiskey on hand that summarizes its type – for example, a Laphroig 10 for Islays, or a Redbreast 12 for Irish – and Oban 14 is that for highland single malts. (Some might say that spot should belong to Macallan 12, and I won’t argue against that – this is just personal preference). I’ll always enjoy this pour, and feel it embodies well what a single malt is.

The Game: Distilled

What a fun game this is. In Distilled, you take on the role of a fledgling distiller, trying to make your mark on the world of spirits. At the beginning of the game, you’re given a choice between two distillery owners from different regions and with different spirit specialties, and the one you choose gives you strategic direction and well as a special player power. The rest of the game is spent upgrading your distillery, hiring employees, and distilling/aging spirits.

There are several things to like about this game. First, of course, is the theme. If you like whiskey, you’ll appreciate this game. Even if the mechanics weren’t executed well (they were), there’s something incredibly satisfying about putting the ingredients together for a spirit, letting it age, then selling it for loads of money and points. Thankfully, the game is more than its theme. Distilled is an interesting mix of resource management, engine building, and push-your-luck. You start with a few bucks and some basic ingredients, and must grow through early cash infusions with moonshine or vodka and purchasing upgrades that make it easier to obtain more resources. The push-your-luck aspect is found in the actual distilling process – in the distilling phase, you put together a stack of ingredients, shuffle them together, then take the top and bottom card out of the stack, What’s left is the spirit you distilled. Sometimes this is the spirit you were aiming for, and sometimes it ends up being something else entirely, depending on what was removed. If you had little control over this, it could be frustrating, but as it’s designed, you can mitigate the luck by putting more ingredients into the still. This however, slows you down, and someone more bold might be able to create more valuable spirits earlier if they’re willing to push their luck. I found this mechanic to be a ton of fun, and seeing whether you made the spirit you were aiming for, or something else was a great reveal for the table every round. Finally, the component quality is incredibly high – the card quality is high, the art is fun, and the organizer the game comes with is fantastic.

This game achieves what I look for in a board game – strategic depth and a high fun factor without asking too much of its players. It’s an easy learn and can be played relatively quickly, but has enough pathways to explore that it won’t get old anytime soon.