Fettercairn is a Highland single malt distillery that Sir Alexander Ramsay opened in 1824 in a former corn mill at Nethermill, on his Fasque estate.1,2,3 The distillery credits a copper cooling ring, which sprays water down the outside of the spirit still, for its tropical house style.1,4,5Whyte & Mackay has owned it since 1973.2,3,5
Very good review score, 87 out of 100Very good87/100
Distinctive and charming, with ripe apples, peppered walnuts, fir needles and currants, leading to a long, dry, bitter finish reminiscent of the best amaros.
amontillado
bacon
bitter
black pepper
+10 more
By Serge Valentin
Silent, 1887–1890
Producing, 1890–1926
Silent, 1926–1939
Producing, 1939–today
182419001950Today
A licence and a landlord
Ramsay had campaigned for the 1823 Excise Act, which licensed distilling, and he hired illegal whisky makers as his first stillmen.1,2,3 Alfred Barnard wrote in 1887 that the first distillery stood two miles higher up the hill, in smuggling country.6 Ramsay leased the distillery to James Stewart, said to have worked an illicit still, who stayed until his death in 1833.2 In 1829 Ramsay sold the Fasque estate, distillery and all, to Sir John Gladstone, father of Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone.1,2,3 The Gladstones let tenants run the distillery, and after Stewart died, Gibb, Durie & Co took over the lease.1,2,3
Sources disagree: when it opened. This page uses 1824.
1830: University of Glasgow Archives and Special Collections, ScotchWhisky.com (Whiskypedia)2,5
The Durie years
In 1845 James Durie reconditioned the buildings, and Gladstone paid £200 towards the work in return for higher rent.2 His son David Durie took over the management in 1851 and became the tenant in 1859 on a nineteen-year lease.2 Barnard found a kiln heated with peat and coke, two pot stills, a worm tub condenser, and an output of 85,000 gallons a year.6
Fire and failing companies
Short of space, David Durie stored whisky with Robertson & Baxter in Glasgow, but Sir Thomas Gladstone refused to allow more warehouses.2 A fire in 1887 did major damage and forced the distillery to close, and much of the stock was lost.1,2,5 The University of Glasgow archive gives another order: Durie left when his lease ended in 1888, and a fire shortly after destroyed almost half the buildings.1,2,5 In 1890 Sir John Robert Gladstone set up the Fettercairn Distillery Co Ltd, with Alexander Lorimer as manager, and distilling began again.1,2 Falling demand and higher licence fees and duty in the 1909 budget led to deep cuts in production.2 In 1912 investors voluntarily wound up the company, and Sir John Gladstone bought the stock and started a new company.
Silent
1926–1939
Production stopped in 1926, the year Sir John Gladstone died and the tenants gave up, and did not restart until 1939.2,3,5 In 1928 the company was wound up, and James Mann, factor of the Fasque estate, held the distilling licence in name only.2 In 1938 Joseph Hobbs, a Canadian Scot who had been in the bootleg trade during prohibition, bought it and put in new mash tuns.2,3,5 His distilleries were joined as Associated Scottish Distillers, the Scotch arm of National Distillers of America, which lit the stills again in 1939.2,3,5
Sources disagree: when Joseph Hobbs took over. This page uses 1938.
Next: Silent, Changing owners, Plant and people, Local oak and barley, How it makes its spirit
On 31 December 1953 it became Fettercairn Distillery Ltd, owned by Tom Scott Sutherland, after Distillers Company Ltd bought Train & MacIntyre.2,5 With demand strong, it went from two stills to four in 1966.2,5 In 1971 the Tomintoul-Glenlivet Distillery Co Ltd bought it.2,5 In 1973 Whyte & Mackay, then owned by SUITS (Scottish and Universal Investments Trust), bought Tomintoul-Glenlivet, and Fettercairn's spirit went mainly into its blends.2,3,5 Lonrho bought SUITS in 1981, and Whyte & Mackay passed to Brent Walker in 1988.7 American Brands bought Whyte & Mackay in 1990.7 Fortune Brands, as American Brands was later renamed, sold Whyte & Mackay to its management in 2001.7United Spirits Limited of India bought Whyte & Mackay in 2007.5,7 On 31 October 2014 United Spirits sold Whyte & Mackay to Alliance Global Group of the Philippines, through its drinks arm Emperador Inc.5,7
Sources disagree: when Tom Scott Sutherland took over. This page uses 1953.
1953-12-31: University of Glasgow Archives and Special Collections2
A visitor centre opened in 1989.2,5 From 1995 to 2009 the condensers were stainless steel, which added a slightly burnt character to the new spirit.5 In 2015 Stewart Walker, who joined as a warehouse operator in January 1990, became distillery manager.1,4
Local oak and barley
In 2015 Gregg Glass created the Scottish Oak Programme to explore using native oak in Scotch whisky making.1 In August 2020 the distillery planted 13,000 oak saplings on the Fasque estate, called the Fettercairn Forest.1,4,8 The distillery's hope is that in 200 years the trees will be used to make its casks.1,4,8 On 15 June 2022 members of the Fettercairn 200 Club marked the first cask filled with barley grown purely within 50 miles.9
Its barley comes from 200 farmers within a 50-mile radius, through the Fettercairn 200 Club set up with Bairds Malt.4,9 Some of its malt is heavily peated, at 55 parts per million (ppm).5 Fermentation runs for 56 hours in 11 washbacks, the vessels where sugary wort from the mash becomes wash.3,4,5 The washbacks are wooden, and the water comes from a spring.3,5 Distillation runs in two batches: wash at around 8% alcohol goes into a wash still, and the result then goes to a spirit still.4 There are two wash stills and two spirit stills.3 The stills have a lamp glass shape and are heated by steam.5 Shell and tube condensers turn the vapour back into spirit.5 The distillery says the ring drenches its stills so that only the finest vapours rise.1,4,5 It can make about 2,200,000 litres of pure alcohol a year.3
