An exclusive interview with Gregg Glass, Fettercairn's Master Distiller

While attending the Canadian launch for Fettercairn Whisky, we had a chance to ask a few questions to Gregg Glass, the Master Distiller at Fettercairn Whisky.

“Can you tell us a couple of things about Fettercairn that make it different than any other single malt?”

“So Fettercairn is one of the oldest distilleries in Scotland. So 1824 is when we founded the distillery. And what's really unusual I'd say is our distillation method. So we have beautiful spirit stills, but we actually have an o-ring on the top, which cold water runs down the outside, and that helps to promote reflux, the vapor contact with copper, and also redistillation. So it creates a really unusual spirit style.

Our house style is beautiful, sort of tropical fruit characteristics, cereal and spice and that lends itself really well with ex-bourbon casks. We also do a lot of experimentation with different types of woods and different partnerships with our distilleries.

I would say that although we're almost 200 years as a distillery, we're really at the forefront of thinking differently about how we make whisky and make different flavor experiences.”

“Can you tell us about the Scottish oak that you guys use? I think that's really cool because nobody really uses Scottish oak.”

“Yeah, I mean it's very rare and in the past some people have experimented with it but for me it's taken around about 15 years to develop a Scottish oak program which is not just about using Scottish oak but it's also thinking ahead and into the future.

So Fettercairn is really the natural home for the Scottish Oak cask making program where not only are we using Scottish Oak and for our 18 year old it's 100% Scottish Oak finished, but we're also looking at how we plant oaks for future generations. So we've even started our own forest next to the distillery with our partners at Fasque Estate.

So we're actually looking in terms of centuries ahead, but also starting that work now. So it's beneficial in many ways, so we've got lots of experimentation in flavor. So the Scottish oak can bring different characteristics depending on the balance of nature and nurture.

So how we dry the oak, if it's air dried, kiln dried, how old the trees are, what type of subspecies there are as well. All of these make different elements. So I always talk about the whisky making being a balance of that nature and nurture.”

Watch this Episode: Inside Fettercairn: A Whisky Chat with Master Distiller Gregg Glass

“That's super cool, because it feels like everyone's always looking to find the most exotic casks as far away as they can. So you're bringing, just going even closer to home to find them right beside the distillery.”

“Yeah, it's really unusual. And, you know, so proud with the partnerships that we've got with that program, including our Cooperage partners. So we're actually bringing back cask making to Scotland. Yeah, so looking at the older generations of coopers who had experience of building casks from trees essentially and timber and taking that to newer generations.

With our partners at Speyside Cooperage, we've actually created a training program within their apprenticeship to actually help build those skills of using native oak, but in a responsible way. In Scotland we don't have a huge number of oak forests that have been managed, and in actual fact it's also about managing the forest as well as the timber itself.

I tend to quite like wind fell oaks, but also we'll source from responsible areas and suppliers and foresters to ensure that it's been ecologically sourced, and also that there's planting and replanting that's associated with that for future generations.”

“So what can we see from Fettercain in the upcoming? Any new expressions or anything in the next couple of years that you're looking forward to releasing or producing?”

“Yeah, absolutely. So what's great about our launching in Canada in particular is that we've got our 12-year-old, we've got our 16-year-old, and the 16-year-old actually changes from batch to batch. So we use different combinations of casks within there. And then our 18 year old, the Scottish oak edition, that one by the virtue of the natural properties of our Scottish oak will slightly vary, but within, you know, how we feel it should be in terms of a consistent style, but with that nuance, given that really whiskies a living, breathing thing.

So even when we put it in the bottle, it hasn't finished the process because then it comes down to the drinker and how they enjoy it and in the different ways that they enjoy whisky as well.

That's what I love about whisky is it might take us 10, 50, 100 years or over 200 years with the oaks in the background. It then actually comes down to people sitting down and enjoying the whisky themselves or with friends and I think that's where whisky really comes back alive.”

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“That's beautiful. Can you tell us about the bottle design a little bit? Is there any meaning to the unicorn?”

“Yeah, absolutely. So the Ramsey family, which are part of the distillery's history, the crest of the family was the unicorn, but the unicorn is also the national animal, albeit a mythical animal, for Scotland. So it's actually quite a beautiful thing.

In terms of the bottle itself, you can see the ribs that are coming down here and then the ring at the top. This is actually representing our unique distillation. So we've got a copper ring on the top of our spirit glass. That's where the cooling would be. Yeah, and the water then comes down here and that cooling effect, what that does is that the vapors within the still will then start to pre-condense. It's almost like a pre-condenser and that's what we call reflux. Some of the heavier elements will fall back in for to the bottom of the still for redistillation.

Now at the end of that what we come out with is a beautiful spirit style which has got lovely cereal spice notes but also fruitiness and that fruitiness develops over time into tropical fruit qualities and that's one of the things that you'll find with all of our Fettercairn's there's an element of this tropical fruit and it will go for maybe quite fresh tropical fruits into ripe and then overripe with age and in terms of what myself and Stuart Walker, the distillery manager, working together we want to then take the best of that house style but also then go in different directions.

So although we've got a house style, we like that diversity to come through for people's palates as well and that's why we have a combination of our whiskies that are continual releases and then also limited releases or limited editions that we can have a little bit of fun with.”