Distillery Visit / Fettercairn

Tucked away at the foothills of the Cairngorm mountains sits a hidden gem of a distillery. Turning off the A90, the main road between Aberdeen and Dundee, the country lanes begin to narrow to the point where you wonder where you are going. Then you see the sign of Distillery Road and your destination sitting on the curve ahead - the distillery of Fettercairn.

The distillery has been there since 1824 and looks like many traditional distilleries of the age. However, something very contemporary is happening there as Fettercairn spearheads a programme to reintroduce Scottish oak to the Scotch whisky industry and its expressive flavours into people's glasses. We were invited to learn more about the distillery and innovative project.

Review / Fettercairn 18 years old

This new whisky is the latest to join the core range of Fettercairn and is a planned annual bottling. It is the first release from the increasingly popular east Highland distillery's innovative Scottish Oak Programme. The initiative has seen pockets of matured and new make spirit filled to virgin Scottish oak casks. These casks have been constructed at the famous Speyside Cooperage specifically for Fettercairn and using wood selected from trees found in the Highlands. It has also seen 13,000 Scottish oak saplings planted close to the distillery, which is hoped will form the new Fettercairn Forest. This will supply Scottish oak for generations of whisky makers to come once they reach maturity.