By Richard Thomas
Rating: A-
(Credit: Whyte & Mackay)
Defying the Second Trump Trade War, Whyte & Mackay chose to go ahead and bring its Fettercairn single malts to the United States, including its entry level Fettercairn 12 Year Old. This is long overdue, as the Fettercairn Distillery is now 102 years old.
The distillery was founded on the estate of the same name in 1824, in the foothills of the Grampian Mountains of the Scottish Highlands. The site commands a sweeping view down the glen, which only underscores how relatively obscure it has been until quite recently. The set up includes open top, wood washbacks and two sets of stumpy pot stills, producing a house style of heavy, nutty spirit. They stopped in-house malting in 1960, and their whisky is unpeated. It’s quite traditional, excepting their practice of washing cold water down the still necks for cooling and condensing. Without this kind of cooling, the spirit might be heavier still. The property has sufficient dunnage warehousing for 32,000 casks and mostly ex-bourbon barrels, with a smattering of ex-Sherry casks and new American casks.
This 16 year old malt was introduced as a permanent brand extension in 2024, coming to the US only this year. This version is based squarely and exclusively on the aforementioned ex-bourbon barrel stocks, and is bottled at 46% ABV.
The Scotch
The pour has the coloring of white wine. The nose led with its strong woody, peppery current, this undergirded with an earthy cocoa character, coupled to faint notes of pineapple and vanilla. Sipping shows a whisky with a creamy texture, as well as flips the character of the whisky over. Now the vanilla and tropical fruit notes (coconut and pineapple) lead, supported by earthiness and cereals, with the spicy and woody aspects pushed back until the back end. At that point, this pair comes back to the stage’s center-front, and stay there for the opening of the finish. They dissipate to leave a faded tropical fruit note, which in turn fades over a long stretch to leave behind an oily trace of soot.
This is a fine single malt, one that allows what Fettercairn says they are shooting for in their house style to shine. Compared to the 12 Year Old, this expression is well-developed and shows a good measure of complexity.
The Price
This bottle is listed at £97.00 on the Fettercairn website shop, which converts to $130. However, some sources report the price in US dollars as much lower, although this could not be confirmed at time of publication by checking what retailers were actually charging. Too few online retailers had the bottle listed to make for a meaningful average.
