I have managed to get samples of quite a few Fettercairn’s now. The 22 year old the latest of them and a new release post rebrand. The Fettercairn distillery is part of the Whyte & Mackay portfolio of businesses and has been around for quite some time.

The Distillery

Founded in 1825 the Fettercairn distillery is in the village of Laurencekirk in Aberdeenshire by the local landlord. https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=!1m18!1m12!1m3!1d4363.060213777149!2d-2.584631321784308!3d56.854003539709296!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!3m3!1m2!1s0x488682d6e0477465:0x8374fb4da232eeef!2sDistillery%20Rd,%20Fettercairn,%20Laurencekirk%20AB30%201YB!5e0!3m2!1sen!2suk!4v1570651965356!5m2!1sen!2suk

By 1830 the estate including the distillery was sold to the father of future Prime Minister William Gladstone who’s family held ownership until 1923. Since then the distillery has been mothballed for short periods but mostly working with stills increased from 2 to 4 in 1966. Currently under the ownership of Whyte & Mackay since as far back as 1973 this traditional distillery has been heavily involved in producing for blends for a long time.

As a single malt brand there has been bottles marketed officially since 2009 with quite a lot of whisky being available as an independent bottling. This is especially true today with some well aged bottles to be had for decent money. The current range includes a range of age statements all in premium packaging and being released in fairly small batches is hard to find outside the usual large online retailers.

The Dram

As seems to be a pattern with the house style the 22 year is completely matured in ex-bourbon barrels. The overwhelming majority of whisky in Scotland is matured in ex-bourbon barrels but you could be forgiven for knowing that though. It seems like every single malt product is finished in this cask or a blend of these menu of cask types but here we have a nice simple recipe put the whisky in barrels, leave it and then finally bottle it.

Available now at 200 pounds it isn’t cheap and most of the bottles in the lineup will be pretty damn expensive. If you do have the money though this isn’t a bad option to go for. Indeed, compared to the 28 year old this is far better value.

Tasting Notes

Colour – pale yellow and very similar to the 20yo last time

Nose – fruity and banana foam sweets. apricot jam perhaps

Palate – chilli heat but still a lot of tinned fruits in syrup, honey but a thin texture compared to that Whisky Works of a similar age

Finish – quite a short finish. drying and minty

Final Thoughts

So like I said on Saturday I tohught I liked this Fettercairn the best from the Tweet Tasting but actually this is more simple and one dimensional than that interesting Speysider. The other one is cheaper as well so if you can get that over this I would do that. Equally though if only the 22 is available you won’t be disappointed.