Fettercairn Fior Review

Hi everyone,

Today I’ve got a distillery I haven’t reviewed before; Fettercairn. Now I hadn’t heard good things about Fettercairn, so wasn’t expecting huge things from this NAS bottling.

It’s owned by Whyte & Mackay, who also own Jura and Dalmore. This is perhaps the runt of that litter, not having a huge marketing effort like the others.

From 1995-2009 they also used steel condensers, and the style seems to lean towards a heavier character to the whisky. Although there isn’t a huge amount of info available, it seems that the spirit stills are also externally cooled by running cool water down the sides of the copper (You can see it here)… Interesting stuff and something I left out of my condenser article.

Anyway, let’s see how this one tastes.

Fettercairn Fior 42%

Colour: E150a

Body: Medium

Nose: Sweet and malty. Roasted nut, hazelnut, cashew nut, Sherry, raisin, pastry, vanilla, some spice and oak. Roasted coffee beans and dark chocolate coming out.

Taste: Sweet and gentle arrival, becoming very sweet with Sherry, raisin, pastry, vanilla, then much more bitter with burnt oak, green oak, building spice and tannins.

Finish: Medium length. Very bitter with dark chocolate and coffee.

Mature for NAS, despite that, it's a little disjointed and unbalanced on the taste.

68/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #444

Whisky Network Review #506

Network Average: 74.2

Best Score: 92

Worst Score: 22

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?