June 11, 2014

The Short Sessions, two naked Fettercairn

AKA Old Fettercairn, but these ones are pretty young. Fettercairn can be a rather strange spirit in my experience…

Fettercairn 8 yo 2005/2014 (46%, Preston's)

A good occasion to try to assess the distillate itself, without much wood influence. Colour: pale white wine. Nose: I had thought this would be dirty-ish, but it’s not. It’s rather an oily, fatty Highlander with linseed and cooking oil (sunflower), then plenty of barley, barley and barley. And overripe apples. Extremely simple, but very pleasant. Mouth: it’s good! Well, maybe not exactly good, but it’s got much character and where else would you find grated orange skins mixed with engine oil and ink? So unusual! Very oily mouth feel. Finish: long, a little bitter, but these notes of orangeade work well. Comments: it’s really great to be able to try such a ‘different’ spirit, and for that I’ll happily give it... SGP:462 - 80 points.

Fettercairn 16 yo 1997/2013 (51.5%, Chester Whisky & Liqueur, bourbon hogshead, 144 bottles)

Colour: white wine. Nose: there, the strangeness is appearing. I find whiffs of rotting oranges (not quite rotten yet) and a lot of straight sulphur, un-burnt. Some wet chalk and clay too, aspirin tablets, then touches of Parma violets or other violet sweets (Toulouse’s), then simply a large bag of sweets of all kinds. Very unusual, very idiosyncratic as they say. With water: vase water, bandages, mud and no more sweets. Ha! A lot of grated nutmeg too. Mouth (neat): fun stuff! Starts with lime juice, goes on with artichokes, ends up with pineapple sweets. Or you blend some icing sugar with grape seed oil. Something earthy in the background, rather around chalk again in fact. Very strange, but it’s pleasant just because it’s so different. With water: even stranger. Antiseptic, aspirin, oranges, unripe cherries and more chalk. Finish: long, very strange. I find even more unripe fruits, cherries, plums… Which makes the aftertaste green and bitter. Comments: a pedagogical malt, I’d say. Nowhere else, nowhere else… And it’s fun again! SGP:361 - 78 points.

Check the index of all Fettercairn I've tasted so far