Scotland’s Fettercairn Distillery has been round since 1824, but it surely took over 200 years for the whisky to make it throughout the pond (to U.S. distribution, not less than). Beginning in summer season 2025, the model started rolling out restricted, well-aged, high-end expressions to the American market on the ages of 24, 28, 40, 46, and 50 years previous.
The releases are extraordinarily restricted, starting from 500 bottles every of the 24 and 28 year-old expressions to simply 35 bottles of the 50 year-old. (Although at an MSRP of $37,000, the lattermost isn’t precisely focused on the common retail client.) Based on model representatives, the distillery is concentrating on broader U.S. distribution for its extra widespread expressions within the close to future, together with the usual 12 12 months. Bottles will likely be offered at “choose luxurious retail and high-end eating venues” in markets together with California, Florida, New Jersey, New York, and Texas. Apparently, the model highlights the truth that all expressions are non-chill filtered and bottled at pure coloration, save for the 28 12 months previous single malt.
Immediately, we’re each the 24 and 28 12 months previous expressions, each aged in ex-bourbon barrels. Chris follows that up with a overview of the 40 12 months previous. Let’s see how they style!
Fettercairn 24 Years Outdated Single Malt Scotch Whisky Overview
The nostril leads with vibrant and daring fruits, together with guava, ripe papaya, dried pineapple, and reduce starfruit, along with grapefruit and pomelo peel; not less than right here, that is actually one for the tropical fruit followers. Passionfruit custard wafts out of the glass subsequent, the whisky sweetening up a bit as decadent (and nonetheless fruit-forward) pastry and burnt sugar develops. Pineapple glazed ham and baked cloves bookend the scents.
A primary sip is mild and noticeably much less potent than the nostril, main much less with fruit and extra with frivolously sweetened dough, vanilla, and slightly confectioner’s sugar. Fruit folds in steadily, and particularly on the second and third sips, passionfruit stands above the remainder. Tiny pops of each paprika and white pepper present a gentle quantity of warmth and spice, which is a pleasant (and considerably essential) foil to the candy fruit. At a tasting I attended a while in the past, a model consultant as soon as referred to Fettercairn as usually exhibiting a frivolously “waxy” mouth really feel. I had hassle deducing a extra apt description, and the whisky leaves a skinny however noticeable coating throughout the palate. Right here, that viscosity helps key flavors linger, however fortuitously with out chopping off the end on the go.
Toffee accumulates on the again palate and end, a pleasant directional shift after the pronounced fruit, with slightly semi-drying oak and cocoa for good measure. 93 proof.
A- / $650 (700ml) [BUY IT NOW FROM FROOTBAT]
Fettercairn 28 Years Outdated Single Malt Scotch Whisky Overview
Drier, oakier, and extra tannic than its youthful sibling, Fettercairn’s 28 year-old single malt opens with overripe, funky, and cooked fruits: fried papaya, mashed banana, and winter melon are all current and accounted for. Sawdust and sandalwood are combined in with roughly equal depth, pulling scents slightly additional away from brilliant tropical fruit. Crystallized ginger and a mixture of cherry and cinnamon candies construct with extra time within the glass.
Equally, the palate leads with oak after which steadily reveals flavors of ripe banana and mango. Lemon rind, vanilla extract, and a barely-there trace of birchbark lead right into a midpalate that sticks someplace on the intersection of heavy citrus cake and seasoned wooden staves. Espresso bean and semi-sweet baking chocolate spherical out notes, although the mouth really feel is a contact too skinny for these to stay round deep into the end. 84 proof.
B+ / $1250 (700ml) [BUY IT NOW FROM FROOTBAT]
Fettercairn 40 Years Outdated Single Malt Scotch Whisky Overview
We acquired a tiny pattern of this prized malt to take a look at, so these notes are restricted. This one spends 38 years in American white oak ex-bourbon barrels, earlier than being completed for over two years in first-fill ex-bourbon barrels — nonetheless all bourbon.
The nostril is sort of wealthy, the barrel doing a number of heavy lifting because it showcases vintage wooden, cola syrup, and a mixture of that tropical observe that David describes in each the 24 and 28 12 months olds. Right here the nostril takes on a extra oxidized high quality, nevertheless, with notes of dried fruit and previous purple wine taking a key position.
The palate makes an actual shift, showcasing intense age and a distinctly Maderized high quality. It’s stunning that no wine barrels have been used within the making of this whisky, because it actually comes throughout as closely completed. Notes of raisins in syrup, nutmeg, and allspice create a vacation vibe, however the quantity of wooden on show is tough to push by means of. Time in glass (what little I may spare with it) helps some sweeter fruit and lighter spice notes emerge, however these are not any match for the doughy end, which is gummy in texture (past waxy) and laden with notes of mincemeat and final 12 months’s fruitcake. 83.2 proof. -CN
B+ / $6000 (700ml) [BUY IT NOW FROM FROOTBAT]
Fettercairn 24 Years Outdated Single Malt
USD650
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