In the Eastern Highlands lies a distillery known as Fettercairn, it was one of the first “Legal” Distilleries in Scotland being built in 1824 by Sir Alexander Ramsay.
Fettercairn has been nurtured by many owners since then and historically, most of its output was going in to making blended whisky. Current owners, Whyte & Mackay, continued to show the world that this workhorse knew how to make a good whisky.
Recently the folks in charge of this old workhorse, which proudly boasts a unicorn logo, decided that the quality of the whisky it produced, deserved to be recognised and efforts went in to producing a line up of single malt, official bottlings.
Back in December 2018, I got to try the current line up thanks to Steve @TheWhiskyWire
Below are my tasting notes for each of them.
The 12 Year Old:
Aged for 12 years in American White Oak ex-Bourbon casks and bottled at 40% Abv
On the Nose: Vanilla and cinnamon up front with bursts of range citrus. I then picked up some white chocolate undertones with an infusion of tropical pineapple.
On the palate: Huge floral and herbal notes initially. Hints of Ginger, cardamon, molasses and raw cocao. Honey then comes to the palate followed by a lovely oak note.
The 28 Year Old:
Aged for 28 years in American White Oak ex-Bourbon casks and bottled at 42% Abv
On the Nose: Minty mango with shortbread biscuits. I also picked up a salty note which wasn’t coastal as such but definitely reminiscent of Salt Water Taffy
On the palate: Huge floral and herbal notes initially. Hints of Ginger, cardamon, molasses and raw cocao. Honey then comes to the palate followed by a lovely oak note.
The 40 Year Old:
Aged in American White Oak ex-Bourbon and finished in Apostoles Sherry Cask No.6 and bottled at 48.9% Abv
On the Nose: Caramel, coconut, red fruits, vanilla, orange and classic dunnage warehouse notes. “This is a dram I Could sniff all day. Christmas cake and custard anyone?”
On the palate: “Wow, that’s a big flavour” A Sherry bomb, masses of fruit, vanilla and herbal notes. More and more notes began to reveal themselves, Tobacco, cherry, ginger, plums, prunes vanilla treacle. Strawberries, white grape and grapefruit at the back end.
This is a complex dram that deserves your time in order to get to know each other.
The 50 Year Old:
Aged in American White Oak ex-Bourbon and finished in Tawny Port Pipe and bottled at 47.9%
On the Nose: “Now this is a treat. What a nose” Port wine finishes have always been a love of mine and this is no exception. Honey roasted nuts with luscious red fruits swirl around along with mulled wine, leather red apples and cheesecake. Port finish and a sour cheesecake note… this is special
On the palate: “Gorgeous” Rich red fruits, Christmas cake, dusty dunnage warehouse notes, oak, vanilla. Lashings of ginger with herbal notes. The Fettercairn logo is a unicorn and it certainly suits this beauty.
I really enjoyed the chance to try these samples.
The chance to try a fifty year old whisky is a rarity that most of us can only dream of and Fettercairn are right to be ploughing money in to their single malt whisky and showing off what they have worked on for the last five or six decades.
Currently priced at £46 for the 12 y/o, Fettercairn have priced this well and it’s going to be a competitive dram.
The prices of the 28, 40 and 50 do shoot upwards, currently £460, £3000 and £17,995 respectively. It puts them out of my price range but if your in a position where you can drop that kind of money on whisky, then well done you and why not have a look?
