Fettercairn whisky distillery

Fettercairn is a unique Highland Whisky with a characteristic nutty spicy house style. If you are fans of typical highland whisky, you should definately try Fettercairn!

Fettercairn Whisky

The Fettercairn whiskey distillery is located in the village of the same name near Laurencekirk in Aberdeenshire in the Eastern Highlands of Scotland. The Fettercairn name (Gaelic: Fothair Chàrdain) means ’the foot of the mountain.'

Fettercairn Distillery was founded immediately after the “Exise Act” in 1824 near Laurencekirk by Sir Alexander Ramsay as the 2nd legal distillery (after Glenlivet) in Scotland. The site was a former mill converted for the creation of whisky.

The village of Fettercairn is small and makes a pleasant impression. It is dominated by St. Martins Church. In addition to the distillery, the attraction of the village is the large archway Royal Arch or Fettercairn Arch from 1863. It was built in honor of Queen Victoria’s visit in 1861. She came to the village during a stay in Balmoral. Not far from Fettercairn, the Gladstone family’s manor house, or rather the Fasque House, can be seen but not visited

House style

How does Fettercairn Single Malt taste?The whiskies of Fettercairn taste earthy and slightly nutty with lots of caramel. The Malt is very balanced, if not super complex.

Production of Fettercairn whisky

How is Fettercairn Whisky produced?Fettercairn distills in four copper stills. Of these the two Wash stills have a capacity of 13,000 liters each, one Spirit Still holds up to 13,500 liters and the other up to 11,500 liters. The Mashtun is made of stainless steel and eight fermentation vats, each 26,000 litres, are made of Douglas fir. The water comes from two sources in the nearby Cairnmorn Mountains. The malted barley has been purchased externally since the sixties. The entire production process takes place in a single room.

Every year a small part of heavily peat smoky whisky is produced (generally over a single month). Fettercairn’s annually production is approx. 2.2 million liters of alcohol. Only a limited part of the production is used for single malt. There are both distillery and independent bottling variantions available. Signatory bottles are always worth looking out for. Fettercairn also makes it’s way into the Whyte & Mackay Blends. There are around 32,000 barrels on the site, some of which come from the other Whyte & MacKay distilleries.

History of Fettercairn distillery

The distillery was founded in 1824, one year after the Act of Exercise of 1823. The new law allowed distillation, provided that the distillers paid a small flat fee as well as alcohol taxes. Fettercairn was thus the second distillery with official distilling license, under the ownership of Sir Alexander Ramsay.

When he had to sell his land due to financial problems, the distillery went to John Gladstone (1830). In 1849 the distillery was partially damaged in a fire. The damage was quickly repaired and production started again. In 1887, a fire broke out for the second time and the distillery was badly damaged, so that reconstruction was almost impossible.

Another important change in the law was even indirectly involved Fettercairn distillery. It is taken as granted that the Spirits Act of 1860 was significantly influenced by the aspiration of the then owner Gladstone, brother of the then British Prime Minister. This Spirits Act allowed the export of the whisky and lifted the inhibitory malt tax.

In 1890 the owner John Gladstone died and his son John Robert took over the management. The distillery was able to reopen in the same year. In order to cope with the high financial costs of the reconstruction, investors had to be brought on board and so the Fettercairn Distillery Co. was founded.

The company New Fettercairn Distillery Co. took over the business in 1912 due to financial problems of the original company. Both the First World War and Prohibition in the USA caused the distillery’s financial situation to deteriorate further until it was finally shut down in 1926.

Train & McIntyre bought the distillery in 1938 and transferred the management to Associated Scottish Distillers Ltd. in 1939, which started production again in the same year. In 1966 the distillery was expanded by two more stills from two to four. In the years that followed, ownership often changed. Tomintoul-Glenlivet Distillery Co. Ltd. Fettercairn took over in 1971. These in turn were owned by Whyte & Mackay Distillers Ltd. Bought in 1973. After several acquisitions of Whyte & Mackay (for example by Lonrho 1974, by Brent Walker Group plc. 1988 and by American Brands Inc. 1990) Whyte & Mackay merged with Jim Beam Brands in 1996 to JBB Worldwide. Part of this group (which also included Fettercairn) was sold again in 2001. The new owner was the Kyndal Spirits. In 2003 the company was renamed White & Mackay. The Indian United Spirits Ltd. bought the entire portfolio in 2007. Fettercairn has a visitor centre and can be visited.

Fettercairn factsheet

Can I tour Fettercairn?

Yes Fettercairn distillery is tourable. On Trip Advisor the distillery has been rated as excellent by of tours to date. This gives Fettercairn an overall rating of