The author in a barley field
Anticipation for our annual couple holiday was particularly high because it included six days in Scotland. This northern island of the United Kingdom was on both our bucket lists. Neither of us had been there, and our son had enthused about what he had seen and experienced during his visit a few years back. Part of the preparation for the trip was making a list of things to do, where to go, and what to taste.
The food part was important to us. A country’s cuisine is a sensory experience of the culture and history of a people, their traditions and social influences, the geography, climate, and historical events. It is a palatable and enjoyable way to become familiar with a place and its citizens, besides giving memory a flavor that can be enjoyed with recollection.
Haggis, the national dish made from sheep’s minced heart, liver, and lungs, and Cullen skink, a thick creamy fish soup, came up frequently on online research and from recommendations of the locals. Among several suggestions, whisky was almost always mentioned. Most tours would include a tasting experience in at least one of the 150 grain and malt distilleries spread over five whisky-producing regions of Scotland. Deciding which one to visit was easy; we just needed to ask Dr. Andrew Tan, the founder of Emperador, a company that is part of his Global Alliance conglomerate.
Dr. Tan owns some of the most iconic and recognizable brands of liquor in the world. What started as a homegrown brandy in 1979 is now, in the market today, the dominant alcoholic spirit extracted from fermented fruit juice. Demand on the international market for Emperador brandy has driven sales to the top spot. “Our strategy at Emperador focuses on premiumization and globalization,” he said in our online exchange.
Strategically, he acquired Spain’s largest and oldest brandy producer, Fundador Pedro Domecq, in 2015. “Fundador is the largest brandy de Jerez in the world.”
He mentioned additional prestige acquisitions. “Jura is the best-selling single malt in the UK,” he said. “Tamnavulin is the fastest growing malt globally, and Dalmore is the most revered single malt in the world and the fastest growing in value.”
Dr. Andrew Tan at Whyte & Mackay (File photo)
The iconic Dalmore is made by Whyte & Mackay, which he bought in 2014. That was where he proposed we visit. However, it was not to be. Due to expansion work in the distillery, the facility was closed to visitors during the time we were there. It proved to be a fortuitous turn of events that led us to Fettercairn, a 200-year-old jewel on the Grampian foothills of Scotland.
Dr. Tan arranged our visit to the distillery owned by Whyte & Mackay. The property in the rural countryside is one of the oldest distilleries, having received its license exactly 200 years ago.
The unicorn, the emblem of Fettercairn and which is also Scotland’s national animal, is the symbol of purity and of the distinctive character of this Scottish whisky.
The year 2024 marks the bicentennial of Fettercairn, which was once owned by the father of former British Prime Minister Sir John Gladstone, whose son, William Ewart Gladstone, was a four-time British Prime Minister. The original owner was Sir Alexander Ramsay, a local landowner who converted a corn mill into the distillery he founded in 1825.
Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert discreetly left Balmoral Castle to stay incognito at the Ramsay Arms
Aristocratic association extended to the nearby village of Fettercairn in Aberdeenshire. Dr. Tan shared the story of a royal visit that left an imprint, which has since been memorialized in stone. “On Sept. 20, 1861, Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert discreetly left nearby Balmoral Castle to stay incognito at the Ramsay Arms, a village pub still in operation today,” he said. “They enjoyed drinks and a meal in secret. The villagers later erected an imposing archway to commemorate the visit. It still stands at the village center.
“Fettercairn is an ultra-premium Single Malt Scotch whisky epitomizing elegance,” he continued. “This refined spirit was enjoyed by Queen Victoria, and we continue to uphold our distinguished character to this day.”
It was a favorable time to visit. Although our schedule allowed only a few hours on a Sunday, when the distillery was closed to visitors, we were graciously accommodated by Whyte & Mackay Single Malt Specialist Andrew Lennie and Linda Smith, who has worked in the distillery for 32 years. Set against the backdrop of a picturesque landscape with nearby mountains and golden fields of barley, the property houses dunnage warehouses, buildings where the production takes place in pot stills, and a pleasant visitor center with a homey atmosphere.
Lennie shared a brief history of the Scottish whisky before pouring a dram of golden bronze-colored Fettercairn 16 years old and the golden amber 18 years old. The introduction was smooth and aromatic, teasing the palate with the signature tropical house style.
Fermentation takes place in ‘washbacks’ made from Oregon pine, where sugar is converted into alcohol in 60 hours, leaving the whole room smelling of banana bread.
Whiskey is aged in oak casks stored in dunnage warehouses.
He led us to another building where production was ongoing. Two wash stills and two spirit stills were distilling barley doused with fresh spring water that allowed only the lightest vapors to rise for the collection. These are fermented and matured in hand-selected oak casks.
“The uniqueness of our product lies in our distillation process,” Dr. Tan told us. “It features our proprietary copper cooling ring and our meticulous maturation process. Innovation thrives in the skilled hands of our master blender, whose secret techniques remain undisclosed.”
Such secrets resulted in a treasure trove of distinguished spirits through the last 200 years, the tasting of which was the highlight of Lennie’s tour. He led us into the manager’s office and proudly showed the 200th Anniversary Collection to celebrate the landmark bicentenary. Six different Single Malt whiskies stood upright inside a very special cabinet made of brass, copper and local oak from the distillery’s estate. Craftsman John Galvin, who was commissioned to create this special encasement, took inspiration from sunlight filtering through the leaves of oak trees to create the organic design.
The Collection includes the 60-year-old 1964, a 49-year-old 1973, the 35-year-old 1988, the 28-year-old 1995, the 25-year-old 1998, and the three-year-old 2021. The sum of those years is 200. Each marks a milestone in the history of Fettercairn, telling a story of landmark moments in the hand-finished bottles. Only 10 of this prized collection exist, which will be available at the end of September this year to connoisseurs at a premium of 100,000 UK pounds.
It was a privileged moment when Lennie poured the 1964 for us to taste
It was a privileged moment when Lennie poured the 1964 for us to taste. He quoted Master Whisky Maker Gregg Glass in describing the oldest Fettercairn Highland single malt as “refined yet alive with arrays of tropical fruits and balanced aged base notes.” Later, I read that “the spirit was aged for 49 years in American oak before being transferred into a single, hand-picked old and rare sherry butt to drive a diversity of flavour.”
Completing the experience was a dram of the three-year-old expression which “embodies the rarest liquid from an exceptional single Scottish oak cask.” Bottled with natural color, no filtration and at cask strength, it is made from all Scottish-sourced raw ingredients, glimpsing a future where everything that goes into a bottle is homegrown in Scotland.
Visitors Centre where whisky tasting is done.
While my untrained palate was still attempting to decipher the “rich berry fruits, fresh patisserie and myriads of spice notes,” I recalled Dr. Tan’s personal take on enjoying his whisky. “It is best enjoyed neat. Allow it to linger on your palate for a few seconds to fully appreciate its nuanced flavors. Fettercairn’s pure, character-rich liquid with tropical fruit notes complements the freshness of salmon, lobster or other seafood of choice.”
We left the distillery an hour past noon, with a distinct flavor lingering in the mouth and a bottle of stories of oak trees, copper rings and fields of barley in the Scottish Highlands.
It was a takeaway that triple-checked Scotland on the bucket list with a memory wafting aromatic sweetness, wood spice, and oak barrels.
