Review: Fettercairn 24 Years Old, 28 Years Old, and 40 Years Old

Scotland’s Fettercairn Distillery has been around since 1824, but it took over 200 years for the whisky to make it across the pond (to U.S. distribution, at least). Starting in summer 2025, the brand began rolling out limited, well-aged, high-end expressions to the American market at the ages of 24, 28, 40, 46, and 50 years old.

The releases are extremely limited, ranging from 500 bottles each of the 24 and 28 year-old expressions to just 35 bottles of the 50 year-old. (Though at an MSRP of $37,000, the lattermost isn’t exactly targeted at the average retail consumer.) According to brand representatives, the distillery is targeting broader U.S. distribution for its more common expressions in the near future, including the standard 12 year. Bottles will be sold at “select luxury retail and high-end dining venues” in markets including California, Florida, New Jersey, New York, and Texas. Interestingly, the brand highlights the fact that all expressions are non-chill filtered and bottled at natural color, save for the 28 year old single malt.

Today, we’re looking at both the 24 and 28 year old expressions, both aged in ex-bourbon barrels. Chris follows that up with a review of the 40 year old. Let’s see how they taste!

Fettercairn 24 Years Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky Review

The nose leads with vibrant and bold fruits, including guava, ripe papaya, dried pineapple, and cut starfruit, in addition to grapefruit and pomelo peel; at least here, this is certainly one for the tropical fruit fans. Passionfruit custard wafts out of the glass next, the whisky sweetening up a bit as decadent (and still fruit-forward) pastry and burnt sugar develops. Pineapple glazed ham and baked cloves bookend the scents.

A first sip is light and noticeably less potent than the nose, leading less with fruit and more with lightly sweetened dough, vanilla, and a little confectioner’s sugar. Fruit folds in gradually, and especially on the second and third sips, passionfruit stands above the rest. Tiny pops of both paprika and white pepper provide a mild amount of heat and spice, which is a nice (and somewhat necessary) foil to the sweet fruit. At a tasting I attended some time ago, a brand representative once referred to Fettercairn as often exhibiting a lightly “waxy” mouth feel. I had trouble deducing a more apt description, and the whisky leaves a thin but noticeable coating across the palate. Here, that viscosity helps key flavors linger, but fortunately without cutting off the finish at the pass.

Toffee accumulates on the back palate and finish, a nice directional shift after the pronounced fruit, with a little semi-drying oak and cocoa for good measure. 93 proof.

A- / $650 (700ml) [BUY IT NOW FROM FROOTBAT]

Fettercairn 28 Years Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky Review

Drier, oakier, and more tannic than its younger sibling, Fettercairn’s 28 year-old single malt opens with overripe, funky, and cooked fruits: fried papaya, mashed banana, and winter melon are all present and accounted for. Sawdust and sandalwood are mixed in with roughly equal intensity, pulling scents a little further away from bright tropical fruit. Crystallized ginger and a mix of cherry and cinnamon candies build with more time in the glass.

Similarly, the palate leads with oak and then gradually reveals flavors of ripe banana and mango. Lemon rind, vanilla extract, and a barely-there hint of birchbark lead into a midpalate that sticks somewhere at the intersection of heavy citrus cake and seasoned wood staves. Espresso bean and semi-sweet baking chocolate round out notes, though the mouth feel is a touch too thin for those to stick around deep into the finish. 84 proof.

B+ / $1250 (700ml) [BUY IT NOW FROM FROOTBAT]

Fettercairn 40 Years Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky Review

We received a tiny sample of this prized malt to check out, so these notes are limited. This one spends 38 years in American white oak ex-bourbon barrels, before being finished for over two years in first-fill ex-bourbon barrels — still all bourbon.

The nose is quite rich, the barrel doing a lot of heavy lifting as it showcases antique wood, cola syrup, and a mix of that tropical note that David describes in both the 24 and 28 year olds. Here the nose takes on a more oxidized quality, however, with notes of dried fruit and old red wine taking a key role.

The palate makes a real shift, showcasing intense age and a distinctly Maderized quality. It’s shocking that no wine barrels were used in the making of this whisky, as it certainly comes across as heavily finished. Notes of raisins in syrup, nutmeg, and allspice create a holiday vibe, but the amount of wood on display is hard to push through. Time in glass (what little I could spare with it) helps some sweeter fruit and lighter spice notes emerge, but these are no match for the doughy finish, which is gummy in texture (beyond waxy) and laden with notes of mincemeat and last year’s fruitcake. 83.2 proof. -CN

B+ / $6000 (700ml) [BUY IT NOW FROM FROOTBAT]

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