Two 1975 Fettercairns

Fettercairn 34yo 1975-2009 58.04% Scotch Single Malt Circle cask#2313

An almost imbarrassingly precise abv% statement on this one, but one the other hand, it would be fun to have an application that could measure abv such as low as 0.04%abv.Just because I do believe that the abv might vary more between batches than many in business would admit. Say a robert mondavi wine (not to throw anyone under the bus). Making a woodbridge, sampling it, and at 13.18%abv it'sperfect, but the importer calls for 13%, what to do? I don't say this is ever the case, and for wine-makers,not that important. But for us into whisky, maybe letting loose on some ground principles could enhance the quality of the final produce? Who knows? As mr. T would say, enough jibba-jabba..
This one from a fresh bourbon cask, smooth, I do have another bottle from 1997 from cask#2320, so I guess from differantiation in distillation years of the spirit the #2320 mightnot be a fresh cask, or it has spent some time before being bottled, or my last suggestion, since the 1997 is a fantastic whisky, it might not make that big a differ? Slightly darker color than the TWA, smells lighter, grassier, more spirity, somewhat closed, needs time to open up. Much more raw than the TWA no matter how I put it. The taste does have even more of the pisang flavour, extremely dry and bitter, a small disappointment so far, needs water. With water it gets massively citric, grilled peppers with chilli gouda, a bit sweet and sour but mostly spicy. The aftertaste is long and bitter, a disappointment.

Started off with a blast, then died slowly: 6.5


Fettercairn 34yo 1975-2009 57% The Whisky Agency, Fossile Series

Some special samples to celebrate the finishing of my Bachelor degree in Film study. I know there were a release of multiple 1975 Fettercairns around 2009, and being the slow trigger that I am, I missed out on those bottlings. Fortunately the sampling distributors at www.whiskysamples.eu were kind enough to release part of a couple bottles of these as 3cl. I know there were another 1975 from the TWA as well, another one to chase down for me.
The smell has some sort of rum-like vanilla, with much oak and some honey nectar. Needs a bit of time, but its an incredibly fine malt, still magic at its best. It develops even more honey with some time in the glass, but lets taste it. Imust add that it has a golden honey color and comes from a bourbon cask. The taste is really powerful, peppery, much more oakiness than anticipated, oak all the way, maybe I should have started with a lighter whisky to warm up? As wellasoak it has some rustic notes, very drying, like raw pisang. I'll give it some water. Nowit gets more rustic, sour, sour chilli paste, but still extremely big in terms of flavour, I have to say I'm quite amazed by the complexity in this malt, and that the aftertaste is much longer than in whiskies like the Supernova or the octomore which usually claim such. Nevertheless, wether it suits the picture of a traditional Fettercairn or not, it's one of the most complex malts I've ever tried. It begs meto ask the question: In which year did they start running water outside the still at Fettercairn? A historic dram?

Fettercairn in a new light, there aren't many like this out there: 8