The story of Fettercairn is not all that different from that of other Scottish
distilleries either, in the sense that this whisky distillery had quite a few
other owners and licensees during the rest of the 19th century, including
James Stewart & Co., Gibb, Durie & Co., James Durie and David Durie.

Fettercairn was silent between 1926 & 1939, when it was acquired by Associated Scottish Distilleries Ltd, a subsidiary of Train & McIntyre Ltd. (owned by National Distillers of America). The new owners resume production immediately and until the maltings were closed in 1960 the distillery enjoyed a few relatively quiet decades. Then things start to become 'fluid' again... In 1966 the number of stills was extended from two to four, but that was the last major change to the distillery itself - unless you count the visitor centre that was opened as early as 1989.

Fettercairn was acquired by the Tomintoul-Glenlivet Distillery Co Ltd. in 1971 (owned by W. & S. Strong & Co. and Hay & MacLeod & Co. at the time). Just two years later Tomintoul-Glenlivet Distillery Co Ltd. (who founded Tomintoul in Speyside in 1964) is sold to Scottish & Universal Investment Trust (owned by the Fraser family) who buy Whyte & Mackay in the same year.
Fettercairn and Tomintoul become part of Whyte & Mackay Distillers Ltd. 

The Glencadam distillery was brought back to life again in 2003 by the company Angus Dundee.
When I write this last update (Autumn 2008), it's hard to predict the future of Fettercairn and its sister distilleries
Dalmore and Isle of Jura under the Indian flag.

In 2002 the old design of the bottle and label of 'Old Fettercairn' (shown above) were
changed to 'Fettercairn 1824' shown at the right. At that time, Fettercairn was the only
remaining active distillery in that part of the Eastern Highlands - over the years all the
other representatives of the area were closed or mothballed; Glencadam (in 2000),
Glenury Royal (in 1985), Hillside - Glenesk (in 1985), Lochside (in 1992) and North Port
(a.k.a. Brechin, the first one to go in 1983). Fortunately, one of these was revived...

In 1974 Whyte & Mackay is bought by 'Lonhro' who sell it on to the
Brent Walker Group plc. in 1988. Then, in 1990, Whyte & Mackay
Distillers is purchased by American Brands, renamed to JBB Greater
Europe plc. in 1995. This company was bought by another company
with the name Kyndal International Ltd. in 2001, who shortly after-
wards decided to change their name to... Whyte & Mackay Ltd.
 
It's enough to make your head spin, isn't it? And then, in 2007,
the story of Fettercairn took another unexpected turn when owners
Whyte & Mackay were bought by the tycoon Vijay Mallya from India.

1) Trivia for Old Fettercairn will be added later.
 

Here's are my notes on some 'core range' official bottlings and a selection of my personal favourites.

Old Fettercairn 10yo (40.0%, OB, Bottled +/- 2000, 100cl)
Nose: Nondescript. Slightly oily. Dusty. Nuttier and maltier with time.
A lot of the character seems to have evaporated since I opened the bottle.
Taste: Sweet and malty. A hint of oil. Nutty. Peanutbutter?
Slightly watery. Some liquorice in the background. Short finish.
Score: 72 points - this bottling seems not as good as my first bottle from +/- 1995 that scored 74 points.
No top shelf candidate, but decent value. A good base for vattings as well, because it's quite 'neutral'.

Fettercairn 12yo '1824' (40%, OB, Bottled +/- 2007) - quite a drop down from the 'Old' Fettercairn.
Nose: Grainy and quite sharp. Not very expressive or complex though. Sweetens out after breathing.
Taste: A flat profile with a rough and sharp mouth feel. Quite bitter, especially in the finish.
Score: 61 points - a significant drop down from some 1990's batches that scored in the lower 70's.

Fettercairn 1992 (60.5%, James MacArthur, +/- 2003, 5cl)
Nose: Soft and creamy. Bakery aroma's. Seems quite gentle at cask strength. A little sour.
With a few drops of water some citrus emerged. Not much else to excite me though.
Taste: Farmy and metallic at first. The high proof disguises the subtler elements; let's add water.
Hmmmm... Not much change it seems, apart from the fact that it became sweeter & easier to swallow.
Score: 76 points - interesting and better than average, but by no means spectacular.

Fettercairn 13yo 1993/2007 (59%, Cadenhead's, 318 Bts.) - you don't see many IB's of Fettercairn.
Nose: Sharp and sweetish. developing spices. Developing farmy and organics. Interesting.
Taste: Sweet start, smooth centre, fruity finish retreating on the sides of the tongue.
Score: 80 points - despite the rather bourbony finish. Nothing really remarkable...

Fettercairn 13yo 1980/1994 (43%, Signatory Vintage, Cask 2001-02, 750 Bts.)
Nose: Liquorice. Sour. Rancio. Raisin skins. Warm strawberry sauce. A tad more expressive than the 14yo?
Taste: Winey. Bubblegum. Oranges. Bitter woodiness. Roasted nuts and chocolate. A highly engaging malt.
Score: 89 points - and once again Serge served me a 'best expression ever'! Just short of the nineties.

Fettercairn 14yo 1980/1994 (43%, Signatory Vintage, Cask 2003-04, 680 Bts.)
Nose: Leather. Sweeter and spicier than the 13yo. meaty. Tea. Hint of antiquity, perhaps?
Taste: Not quite as extreme as the 13yo. Just a little tannic in comparison. Peppery mouth feel.
Score: 87 points - another distillery that I wasn't all that interested in jumps into the limelight!

Fettercairn 25yo 1970/1996 (57%, Signatory Vintage, Distilled 10/9/1970, Bottled 01/1996)
(Cask #4709, bottle #114 of 202, brought from Australia to Scotland by Craig in 2003).
Nose: appears grainy and quite harsh at first. Over time it grew bolder and sweeter.
Slightly oily with something fishy in the background. Milk powder? Quite interesting.
Taste: At c/s it was flat and numbing. With some water more woody elements emerged.
Dry finish. I'm not really into these 'natural' malts, but Craig, Serge and Krishna liked it.
Score: 76 points - but the maniacal opinions about this bottling varied a lot.
 

These were not all the (official and independent) expressions of Fettercairn whisky I've tried over the years.
My Track Record used to contain a complete overview of all the single malts I've tried, but when I passed the 2000 malts mark (and the complete whisky list wouldn't fit on two separate HTML pages anymore) I gave up. My Liquid Log still contains my tasting notes on most single malts I've sampled and scored, though. You can find a specific expression through the search box at the top of each distillery profile. The mAlmanac now contains (purely personal) selections of some of the best single malts and the worst whiskies I've tried so far - as well as the ones with the highest 'Bang-For-Your-Buck' value. But those tasting notes and scores only reflect my own, purely personal opinions. On Serge's distillery profile on Whiskyfun you can find another perspective on the whisky made at this distillery. Check out the Malt Maniacs Monitor on Malt Maniacs for my scores on all expressions I've tried so far - and those of almost all the other certified malt maniacs as well. The Malt Maniacs Matrix contains a few thousand single malts that were sampled and scored by at least four different malt maniacs, so you can compare our individual opinions.
 
 

The Old Fettercairn distillery (a.k.a. Fettercairn or Nethermill) was built in
1824 by Sir Alexander Ramsay. So, that's the meaning of the number 1824
on the bottles - it's not the distillation year... The distillery was rebuilt
between 1887 and 1890 after it was damaged by a fire. Fettercairn was
hardly the only distillery in Scotland to suffer such a fate - in fact I imagine
that the distilleries that were not damaged or even completely destroyed
at least once in their lifetime are the proverbial exceptions to the rule...