Fettercairn 12yo PX

Just before Christmas last year I got to try 4 drams from a little known, to me anyway, Highland distillery called Fettercairn - you can read all about it here. Located halfway between Dundee and Aberdeen it properly out of the way!

After the tasting I contacted the distillery to ask a few questions and clear up a few points on their website. I got the impression they weren't quite switched on to social media.


To be honest did they need to be? An old traditional distillery still doing things the same way turning out high quality whisky which was being enjoyed all over the world. I think they may have taken notice of some of my comments though as they've brought in a new media team to help support the distillery. As part of that they've sent out some samples of their new Travel Retail dram the 12yo PX.

Distillery manager Stewart Walker describes how "the 12yo PX calls on Pedro Ximenez sherry casks to enhance Fettercairn's signature tropical fruit notes and add a layer of sweet complexity".

The 12yo PX is the latest addition to what Fettercairn describe as "a new dawn" for the distillery, the normal retail range consisting of the 12yo, 28yo, 40yo and 50yo.

My notes on the 'standard' 12yo went something like "Sweet honey, porridge, tinned pineapple on the nose - yummy! Watery honey, ginger spice. Develops into a golden syrup with digestive biscuit. on the palate and a short but warming & spicy finish with more of the sweet porridge from the nose - yummy!"

Notice the two yummies? Well apart from the piece of liquid history that was the 50yo, I thought the 12yo was the best of the rest. So a double yummy finished in PX casks - what's it like?

Appearance: like it's 12yo sibling I'm assuming this is unfortunately coloured and chill filtered, swirls cling to the glass and fall as slow thin legs.

Nose: Wow - very sweet! There's honey and pineapple; sweet strawberry jam and an icing sugar dryness. A little time in the glass reveals apricots, mango and dates a tropical fruit salad!

Palate: A slightly oily arrival, again sweet but not overly so. All the tropical notes from the nose flow on to the palate: pineapple, mango and apricot are there, the dates seem to have stayed in the glass. Strawberry jam and icing sugar are there, the latter giving an instant dryness. There is a lovely spicy ginger bite at the end. Yummy!

Finish: Medium length, warming and spicy. There is a little sweetness but the ginger takes centre stage here. Yummy!

Thoughts: Another two yummies here - this is a lovely dram! Similar to the 12yo ex-Bourbon, sharing the distillery's characteristic tropical fruit notes but swapping the biscuit / porridge notes for strawberry jam sherry notes from the PX finish and a lovely drying icing sugar. In my opinion this is better than the standard 12yo and worth hunting out if you are travelling. The only downside is maybe the ABV, 40% isn't great - this may have been even better at 46%.

Many thanks to @FettercairnWh distillery, and their new media team @mackerelmedia, for the sample, keep up the good work but remember tradition means more than these new fangled marketing techniques - I guess at the end of the day it's a balance!