FETTERCAIRN 12 YO Highland Single Malt Scotch Whisky, 70 cl

Product Information

There are aromas of vanilla and citrus, with creamy butter cake as a distinct element. Flavour-wise, I'm getting a very gentle dram, filled with sweetness (the coconut is really there!), followed by a creamier aspect, and the slightest hint of (slightly unripe) pineapple. This might have been the longest 'running-up-to-reviewing-a-whisky' I have ever written. But I think it serves a purpose. Nose: Fettercairn yeastiness meets sweet sherry. Orange peels, juice and marmalade (there’s a lot of orange here) sit with golden syrup and dehydrated mango slices. Malty loaves and oven-baked buns are joined by dusty spices – cinnamon and allspice - whilst ripe berries (cranberry and strawberry), Eton Mess, stem ginger and crushed hazelnuts emphasise the influence of the PX finish. It’s sweet. Super sweet. You are responsible for all activities through your account. You are responsible for the accuracy of the information you provide to us in relation to your account, and for updating it where necessary. You are not allowed to create multiple accounts. We may terminate or temporarily suspend your account to protect you, ourselves or our partners from (suspected) identity theft or other (suspected) fraudulent (e.g. false, misleading, deceptive) activity. You have the obligation to keep your login credentials confidential. You shall not authorize any others to use or access your account. A single cask whisky is exactly that: whisky from one cask from one distillery. If the amount of casks you use is limited, your price per bottle will rise as well.

Fettercairn 12 year old PX Finish Review - The Dramble Fettercairn 12 year old PX Finish Review - The Dramble

Taste: Pedro Ximinez sherry casks enhance Fettercairn’s signature tropical fruit notes and add a layer of sweet complexity. Peach, guava, and blood orange, with subtle liquorice. Hints of maple syrup and crème brûlée. Although slightly above my personal 'ideal price' in my head, this expression offers up a palate which is perfect for people who are starting their whisky journey.Let me start by adding that there is little extra information to be found on the Fettercairn 12 expression. It's a 12 year old single malt whisky, matured on American White Oak ex-bourbon casks. Fettercairn 12 is priced on average at around 50 euros online.This, to me, is an acceptable price for a 12 year old whisky, although slightly above what I personally would spend. Perhaps it was because the 'old' Fettercairn distillery was never very popular with whisky journalists. But that's the old distillery, and here's an article about it by Whiskymag.com. In 1830, Sir Alexander sold the distillery as well as Fasque Estate to Sir John Gladstone, father of William Ewart Gladstone who would be Prime Minister on four occasions over the course of the 19th century and, during which time, he would not only legalize the selling of bottled whisky to the public, but also scrap the Malt Tax.

Fettercairn 12 Year Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky | Waitrose

Additionally, to be legally classified as (Scotch) whisky, "[t]he law states that whisky must have a minimum alcohol content of 40%" (Whisky.com). Records the default button state of the corresponding category & the status of CCPA. It works only in coordination with the primary cookie. For the majority of whisky drinkers it is the 12 year old that is most likely to draw attention. I find myself a little concerned with its price point, however, and fear the dreaded ‘p’ word may have been sprinkled liberally over the marketing meetings that led to its release. The premiumisation of whisky is getting rather out of hand of late, with largely unheard of brands suddenly declaring themselves luxury items and hiking their prices accordingly. This is particularly galling with a distillery like Fettercairn, that hasn’t been without image problems in the past. Nevertheless it seems we are expected to forget this and accept the new single malt is worthy of a higher price point. I wouldn’t consider myself a whisky connoisseur but I have tried a number of single malts over the last few years and this is my favourite. It has lovely smooth texture and the main flavours are at the sweeter end of the whisky spectrum, honey, vanilla, a touch of ginger and chocolate. I add a single cube of ice to it and it goes down really well! Highly recommended. I’m not a fan of the smokey and peaty flavours you find in some single malts so if that’s to your taste, do not but this whisky! Although mainly a contributor to the firm’s blends, it has long been bottled as a single malt. A more concerted effort started in 2009 when a range of aged variants and a pair of no-age bottlings, Fior and Fasque (the name of the Fettercairn estate), was released.

Maturation: Aged in American White Oak Ex-Bourbon Barrels and finished in a Pedro Ximinez Sherry Cask. Some consider chill filtering to be a process during which the flavour of the whisky changes. The residue, especially the esters (little molecules providing for flavours and aromas), is removed. People who do not think that chill filtering is a bad thing often mention that it allows whisky makers to keep producing an expression which, on the level of flavours and aromas, is more consistent. No partnership, joint venture, agency, or employment relationship is created as a result of your use of the Service. So the flavours and aromas change. Using chill filtering, therefore, makes your whisky taste less 'natural'. But is that a bad thing?

FETTERCAIRN 12 YO Highland Single Malt Scotch Whisky, 70 cl

Our Service is an online platform which provides Members with information (e.g. bottle facts, market-indices, market values and prices) on (mostly) whisky and allows Members to add information to the platform. We do not sell, nor does the Service provide any option to buy, any alcoholic products. Well, according to the sleuth, this expression is merely 40% ABV, is chill filtered, and is very expensive. But are these points we can put in the "negative" list? Let's find out!It may not be a massive price jump but it is a jump nonetheless, and when you consider that Springbank and Ardbeg, the two nearest in price are bottled un-chill-filtered at 46%, while Fettercairn is diluted to 40%, the difference looks all the more dramatic. As a finish, more vanilla, with barely any dry element to round the dram out. Very down-to-earth, easy to process. Okay in my book, nothing bad about it at all. Well, as always, Wikipedia is your friend: " Chill filteringis a method in whisky making for removing residue.In chill filtering, whisky is cooled to between −10° and 4° Celsius(often roughly 0°) and passed through a fine adsorption filter. I'm a licensed Q-grader - different liquid sure - but sensory evaluation of valuable drinks is my job...

Review // Fettercairn 12y Single Malt - A unicorn worth Review // Fettercairn 12y Single Malt - A unicorn worth

How you can arrive at a 1 star review of this whisky is almost hilarious were it not for its stupidity. A well-aged Fettercairn bottling that combines the distillery's classic dark, rich and nutty character with American White Oak ex-bourbon cask maturation? You can count us in! This is done mostly for cosmetic reasons – to remove cloudiness – rather than to improve taste or consistency. Chill filtering prevents the whisky from becoming hazy when in the bottle, when served, when chilled, or when water or ice is added, as well as precluding sedimentation from occurring in the bottles. It works by reducing the temperature sufficiently so that some fatty acids, proteinsand esters (created during the distillation process) precipitate out and are caught on the filter." (Chill filtering, Wikipedia).

Fettercairn is a distillery who’s differences are more visually apparent than most. An open-topped mash tun (always fun to see in operation) produces a cloudy wort – this results in a more malty, nutty and spicy spirit style as opposed to a clear wort which centres on sweetness rather than cereal character. But, perhaps the biggest alteration from the norm comes with Fettercairn’s stills. There's a phrase in the whisky community that is used to describe those special bottles that are very hard to find and are therefore incredibly expensive. 'Unicorn expressions' have an almost mythical status, as plenty of people in the community want to turn their fantasy of tasting, or even owning, such an expression into reality. For this review, I am not going to claim the Fettercairn 12 is a 'Unicorn expression', although it has a unicorn on its label. I am, however, going to put it to the test: is this an expression worth chasing, or not? I’m often asked by my non-whisky friends why I visit so many distilleries. Surely, they say “….they’re all exactly the same, haven’t you seen it all many times before?”. Well, in technical sense yes – water, barley and yeast = whisky – and the processes of mashing, fermentation and distillation are common across all distilleries in their essence. But, it’s the differences – some incredibly subtle – at each and every stage of the whisky making process which result in marked variances of the end liquid. The minutiae of the processes operated across different distilleries * are* different. And they’re important. A change here, or a change there will have a dramatic effect on the flavour and character of the eventual whisky. To the uninitiated it’s easy to understand why things might look the same, but under the hood, there’s a reason why whiskies are different.