Fettercairn is one of those whiskies that doesn’t have a large fanbase. With an average Whiskybase rating of under 85, that’s not too surprising, since that means that there’s enough low scoring whiskies in the mix to counter all those people that rate stuff at 95 by default.

Strangely, or perhaps not at all, it’s from the same owners as Jura and Dalmore, which aren’t exactly fan favorites either. Dalmore is a bit more weird than the other two, though, with official bottlings generally priced sky-high, as soon as it has either a decent age statement or is one of the million special releases.

Anyway, a 16 year old Fettercairn, from pretty well regarded sherry casks, at a decent ABV. From a distillery that *should* be able to gather some interest because of their unique distillation setup. Their stills being water cooled from the top, and such. Let’s see what it’s about.

Sniff:
Malt forward with not much oak on the nose. There is a strange, hard candy like acidity, though. After some more sniffing I start getting a more porridge like note. A note of vanilla too.

Sip:
The palate seems to be a bit more balanced. There’s a custard note of sweetness and vanilla, with a lemon curd note for acidity. Oak and barley, a bit of lemon zest and white pepper.

Swallow:
The finish isn’t too great. Dry with white pepper and lemon, vanilla, oak and barley. The same flavors, but a lot more spikey than before.

I didn’t do too much checking beforehand, and because of that I don’t think I would have guessed this was a sherry cask without checking Whiskybase. As you might have guessed, I’m not a fan. It isn’t bad, but I wouldn’t be happy if I’d spent € 80 on this.

It tastes younger than it is, and the sherry casks aren’t too noticeable either. There’s some peppery spice, but otherwise the hard candy and vanilla can go either way. Bummer.

79/100*

Available more-or-less everywhere for € 80-ish

*Yes, this is according to my recent ‘scoring’ post. Ratings might be a bit lower from now on.