Fettercairn 14-Year-Old Travel Retail

Fettercairn 14-Year-Old Travel Retail

Fettercairn 14 Travel Retail	Data Sheet
Barcode	5013967020887
Distillery Owners	Whyte & Mackay
Release Year	2024
Price	£56 in UK Exclusive to Travel Retail
Alcohol Percentage (abv)	46%
Bottle Volume (cl)	70
Cask Maturation	Ex-Bourbon Barrels
Non-Chill-Filtered	Yes*
Natural Colour	Yes*
Kashrus Status	No Kashrus issues.
Kashrus certification	None

* Stated as such on the back of the box but not on the bottle itself. This is, in my opinion, an oversight.

Note: Before reading this review, I’d strongly recommend that you read my previous article on a profile of Whyte & Mackay and Fettercairn distillery.

Introduction

My wife had gone on a work trip to London for a few days and was flying back home via Heathrow airport. Unlike Luton Airport which has no specialised whisky shop, Heathrow boasts a pretty impressive called “World of Whiskies”, part of the “WorldDutyFree” chain.

https://worlddutyfree.com/en/liquor/whisky

Amongst the run-of-the-mill Glen-This and Glen-That so called “Travel Retail Exclusive” offering Non-Age-Statement bottlings of poor spirit with fancy names at inflated prices at one end of the scale, and on the other end, those whiskies that come in hand-made crystal glass bottles containing a 50-Year-Old run-of-the-mill Glen-This and Glen-That “Travel Retail Exclusive at really-really inflated prices, you might find something worth buying there, if you’re lucky. I’m talking about something with Integrity pedigree that doesn’t cost a fortune. Looking online at what they had to offer, I took the opportunity to ask my wife to pop in and pick me up a Fettercairn 14.

Packaging and Artwork

The relatively new packaging and artwork of Fettercairn’s core-range and Travel-Retail range are simply gorgeous. From the uncluttered use of space to the clear font and subtle touches here and there, this is an exercise in whisky market design done right.

The same goes for the bottle design. It has real style.

The Victorians originally produced bottles with vertical ridges on them that often came with an accompanying embossed “NOT TO BE TAKEN” statement as a safety feature so that someone would not accidently pick up a bottle containing poison in dim candle lit rooms and drink it. Picking up a bottle with ridges would immediately warn the person that the contents were “not to be taken”!

Ironically, the Victorians later started using more elaborately ridge patterned bottles for holding perfume, so this bottle design began to be associated with luxury and desirability.

The box and bottle label use simple but elegant clean lines and understated colours. The only fancy part of the design is a tasteful and not over-the-top medallion of a unicorn’s head embedded into the glass.

The Unicorn of Scotland

The unicorn is actually the national "animal" of Scotland and not the stag, as some would believe. It is rather unusual for a country to choose something mythical and not a real animal that is native to the land. (No, unicorns did not roam the hills and glens of the Highlands).

The Unicorn has been the symbol of Scottish Royalty since the 12^th century but Scotland’s connection to the legendary beast goes back much further to pre-Chrstian Celtic mythology. By the time we get to King James III of Scotland in the 15^th century its place on all Royal symbols was already well established, featuring on coats of arms, flags and coins.

Notice the chain around the body of the unicorn?

What’s with the crown around the unicorn’s neck and a chain connected to the crown and wrapped around the body of the animal?

You’ll often hear the claim that the chain around the unicorn, as seen in the Royal Crest on the Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom, signifies Scotland’s servitude to the Lion of England.

However, this claim, no matter how many times you hear proud Scots tell it, is misinformed.

In fact, the Unicorn of the Scottish Crown has featured this chain for over 500 years, well before the English / Scottish Union of 1707.

In ancient mythical theology, the unicorn was seen as an untameable beast, representing the purity and righteousness of the Scottish people. The chains around the unicorn in Scottish heraldry symbolised the power of the Scottish kings to tame the wild and untamed unicorn and by extension, the Scottish King’s authority to reign over the people of Scotland.

The cork stopper, utilised in Fettercairn’s entire range, including the Entry-Level expression, the 12-Year-Old, is substantial and of high quality. I applaud Whyte & Mackay for this. (Take note Angus Dundee and your insistence on using the cheapest of the cheapest generic cork stoppers).

Tasting Notes

Friday night, we had invited a couple round who are old friends to join us for the seuda (Shabbos meal). They are not serious whisky drinkers but both have wide ranging tastes in alcoholic beverages including liquors, fruit Brandies and all kinds of spirits, including whisky.

For Kiddush and the start of the seuda, I opened up an excellent Shiloh winery Barbera 2023 from their “Shor” series at a very reasonable RRP of NIS 85.

This is such a great wine. It’s medium bodied, rich black berries and currents, a touch of marmite and light oak spices. It’s also very forgiving if you forget to open it up before you go to shul. Even popping the cork as soon as you get home, by the time you’ve sung Shalom Aleichem, Eishes Chayil, blessed the kids and grandkids (this Shabbos we actually didn’t have any) and then arrange everyone around the table, the Shiloh Shor Barbera will be more than ready to say Kiddush over and to serve it to your guests.

It will continue to improve when left on the table between kiddush and HaMotzei. I distribute my wife’s delicious challah to everyone. She has started using a sprinkling of Kimmel (caraway seeds) on top which adds a really tasty alternative to the standard poppyseeds or sesame seeds. The Barbera compliments the challah and Smoked Salmon perfectly.

I had already had a few tasting sessions with this Fettercairn but I thought that it would be interesting to see what they made of it. So, after the Gluten Free Chicken soup with Gluten Free Kneidelach, Smoked Salmon, Avocado Salad, home-made pickled cucumbers and exotic Vegetable Salad containing all kinds of leaves from various species, and before the main Chicken course, I poured them some of this whisky. (I’ll tell you what they thought of this at the end).

The following are my tasting notes:

Appearance

Typical of Ex-Bourbon Barrel matured Single Malts, this is medium Straw gold colour. Swirling the whisky around in my Glencairn glass, there are less alcohol droplets than I would have expected sticking to the inside of the glass.

It states Non-Chill-Filtered but I wonder if this has gone through some less invasive kind of filtration, besides Barrier Filtering? Viscosity was also not what I was would have supposed.

On The Nose

Initial impressions: Fresh, spirit-y, floral and Fruity.

Aromas of juicy fruit chews. Those soft yellow fruit “toffees” as the Israelis call them that are used to throw at anyone given an Aliyah and celebrating a simcha, including the birth of child, a Bar Mitzvah, an engagement and wedding, etc.

This Fettercairn has a big Pineapple fruity nose to it. There’s also some Honeydew Melon with a touch of just ripe Banana.

Fresh soft wood spices and Walnuts straight from the shell.

After a while you begin to pick up Vanilla Cream Puff-pastry tart with wet tangy baked pineapple jam on top.

Mouthfeel

The initial tasting experience in the mouth is very positive. Good body with the flavours coating the mouth. It’s buttery rather than oily. With water added, the mouthfeel turns into a creamy buttery texture. It takes perhaps one and a half teaspoons? It is however, surprisingly rather a delicate whisky so be careful adding too much water as at some point the creaminess is replaced by a watery mess. Beware: It’s easily drowned.

Tasting

Without water it’s spirit forward, slightly acidic and fruit-y-sharp.

The taste is young, yellow fruits forward, tangy and fresh. That big Pineapple juice on the nose continues into the flavour, along with Ginger, Walnuts, wet pastries. Fresh sweet and tart tropical fruit juice.

With water added, it becomes really creamy. I’m talking Creamy Pineapple yogurt. (There is a slight tartness and a yeasty note to this, just like a natural BIO yogurt). Cinnamon and honey Toast. Pineapple and Vanilla cream tarts with walnut flakes on top.

The Finish

There are lots of things I like about this whisky but there is one area which really lets this Fettercairn down, and that’s in the finish. With such a great nose, good mouth-feel and tasting experience, there’s no getting around it, the finish is a real letdown. It’s certainly complex, leaving a medium length taste in the mouth but the different favours are, in my opinion, not fully integrated and frankly, all over the place.

The finish consists of some lovely creamy vanilla and pineapple yogurt notes, but it’s accompanied by (even with water added), some bitter white pith from a grapefruit or orange, a bit of menthol heat and a slightly astringent tropical underripe fruit note.

What’s left is a slightly dry mouth feel. It’s not umami or bitter. Just dry.

I suspect however that some might really enjoy this kind of challenging whisky. I’m sure they’d call it funky, although a Springbank this is not!

It certainly has character to it but again, in my opinion, there are too many flavour notes that seem to clash as if the oak hasn’t yet fully integrated with the spirit.

Conclusion

As I have warned about in previous articles where I’ve talked about New Oak Cask Engineering, techniques to cut corners in the maturing and drying process of wood can lead to strange results. Its unique flavours are no doubt due to the use of these Scottish Oak casks, and that’s a good thing. However, in my opinion, this is one of those examples where they haven’t got it quite right yet. Again, that’s just my opinion.

This Fettercairn certainly has some character and with it, and some character flaws.

This is certainly not an easy going, relaxing, at the end of the day, kind of malt. I must say that I’m enjoying my time with it but it’s challenging and certainly isn’t for the beginner or even long-term casual drinker.

I’d give this a guarded recommendation for the more advanced drinker, especially one who prefers things on the funky side. I would however, be less inclined to recommend it to someone who is used to Single Malts more on the sweet honied and caramel forward style. Case in point, our Shabbos evening friends. Their opinion was, shall we say, not very favourable. They were missing that vanilla/caramel element there is to most Bourbon matured Single Malts. They commented that it was astringent, sharp, immature, and here comes the death nail….it wasn’t “smooth”, not like the Glencadam American Oak that I’d given them earlier. (Perhaps I should have given them this Fettercairn first and then the Glencadam?)

It gets many things right but even at 14 years, it still needs, in my opinion, a bit more time in the cask for those sharp spirit fruity notes to calm down and to infuse the whisky with more soft oaky spices.

I believe that Whyte & Mackay are really trying hard to break their reputation for making rubbish whiskies. I really wanted to love this Fettercairn and give it a positive review, but my friends, who don’t know all the background story with this expression and therefore are probably more objective than I am, were not impressed. I still feel however, that Whyte & Mackay are heading in the right direction and I’m not going to give up on them.

That’s why the next time I find someone who is passing through Heathrow airport, I’m going to ask them to pick me up the Fettercairn 17-Year-Old Travel Retail. Yes, it’s £120 but my gut feeling is that a Fettercairn with 3 more years under its belt could really sort out that finish and be not just a good but superb whisky. Even, dare I say, legendary, like a Scottish unicorn.