Fettercairn 1988-2018 - 29 Year Old - Cadenheads Authentic Collection - Single Cask

The Fettercairn distillery has long been in the shadow of its Whyte & Mackay stablemates Dalmore and Jura, and until very recently received little marketing attention. This situation was not helped by a failed revamp in 2009, when a much-trumpeted launch of 24-year-old, 30-year-old and 40-year-old Fettercairns fell a little flat due to a combination of disappointingly low bottling strengths, poor cask selection on the 30-year-old and some laughably over-ambitious pricing.

Happily for Fettercairn, developments since Whyte & Mackay were purchased by Emperador in 2015 have been encouraging, with a smartly-packaged, well-received new range appearing in 2018. Adventurous whisky fans, though, will find the best value for Fettercairn in cask strength, well-aged independent bottlings from Signatory, Cadenhead’s and Douglas Laing.

In 1842 George Duncan established a wine merchant and distillery agency business in Aberdeen. Duncan was joined in the early 1850s by his brother-in-law William Cadenhead, who took over the business after Duncan’s death in 1858, changing the company’s name to Wm. Cadenhead. When Cadenhead died in 1904 the company passed to his nephew Robert Duthie, who developed the spirits side of the business.

Duthie died suddenly in 1931, and employee Ann Oliver was put in charge of Cadenhead’s. Sadly, Oliver’s tenure ended in financial difficulty and on her retirement in 1972 the business was forced to sell its entire inventory. Cadenhead’s was acquired soon afterwards by J & A Mitchell, proprietors of Springbank distillery, who relocated the business to Campbeltown. Cadenhead’s has flourished under Mitchell’s stewardship, releasing many legendary single malt bottlings in the 1980s and 1990s and now has outlets in Edinburgh and London as well as Campbeltown.