19-05-2025
Fettercairn Scotch Now Available For The First Time In The U.S.
Fettercairn distillery in the Scottish highlands.
Fettercairn is a Highlands single malt with 200 years of history, but for the first time, the Scotch is coming to the United States.
The brand is starting with five highly-allocated prestige expressions, aged between 24 and 50 years this year, and will begin to launch more age statements over the coming years, said Anice Kim-Saunders, Vice President of Marketing for Fettercairn.
While it may seem like an unusual choice to introduce high-end Scotches before the core range, Scotch has benefited from drinkers' desire to 'trade up' from premium to high-end and super-premium products, according to a 2024 report from the Distilled Spirits Council, which said that since 2003, super-premium single-malt Scotch volumes have grown more than 102%.
'We've been planning this one for a long time,' said Benjamin Boice, the U.S. Single Malt Specialist for Whyte & MacKay, the company which owns Fettercairn as well as other brands like The Dalmore. 'Over the last four years, we've pulled out of 70 different markets across the world to be able to hold on to and to build stock up enough where we felt confident to bring it to the United States.'
It's been possible, but hard to find Fettercairn from independent bottlers in the United States, and those who seek it out are passionate about it, Boice said. Those whisky geeks are one of the reasons they started with the older age statements.
'We wanted to kind of bring out something that really, I think, showcases the DNA to a level that you think is just absolutely, just divine,' Boice said.
A cooling ring on a still at Fettercairn.
One distinguishing feature of the Scotch is that the stills have cooling rings. Distillery manager Stewart Walker, a village local who joined Fettercairn in 1990, explained that in the 1950s, then distillery manager Allistair Menzies wanted to create a lighter, more floral style of spirit. He did this by at first hosing down the stills, and then eventually installing copper rings, which drench the outside of the stills with water, creating a lot of steam — and a more delicate spirit. The lighter fruiter notes pass on to the distilled spirit, while the heavier, oilier notes condense and fall back in the still.
There's even a nod to the ring on the neck of the Fettercairn bottle, which depending on the expression is clear or copper colored, with ridges symbolizing water dripping down the bottle.
Cooling rings aren't the only way to create a lighter spirit. The effect could have been achieved through new stills with longer necks or a different shape, but this sort of ingenious tweak is key to the legacy of Fettercairn thinking outside of the box.
'It's such a cheap piece of engineering that's made such a huge fundamental change to the spirit we made,' Walker said. 'But the beauty is if it didn't work, he could have gone back to the way it was.'
The brand is looking to evolve for the future, Walker said, hinting at other projects in the pipeline, like a Scottish oak program.
'Innovation comes naturally at Fettercairn,' Walker said. 'We're always asking ourselves should we try this? Can we try this? A bit part of that was the cooling ring.'
The first round of Fettercairn whisky coming to the United States, aged 24 to 50 years old.
Tasters can see the effect the ring has in the older expressions. The 24 year old has lots of mango and tropical fruit ($650 a bottle; 500 allocated for the U.S.) and an American Oak ex-bourbon cask lends a lot of vanilla. The 28 still has tropical fruit, but it's more cooked and caramelized, like a banana foster ($650 a bottle; 500 allocated for the U.S.).
The 50 year old is a different beast. It was aged for 45 years in American white oak ex-bourbon barrels, then finished for around five years in a 1987 tawny port pipe cask, and has notes of chocolate-covered raisins, molasses and leather.
