The wonderful First Editions line from Hunter Laing is new to our shelves, but they've been bottling these for sometime. It's their range of cask strength single barrels, but offer an incredible value across the board. This rare expression, a heavily sherried Fettercairn, is unique for some many reasons. Firstly, Fettercairn rarely makes it out of the Whyte & Mackay blending apparatus and when it does it's often in very underwhelming casks. We've had it on occasion from various bottlers, but never in such a highly active sherry butt. This one is exclusive to K&L in the US, but can be found in Europe for 40-60% more expensive than we're charging. The distillery bottlings are simply unbelievably expensive, so this pricing really seems special in that context. Plus, Fettercairn is just a strange distillery (check out video of their unique cooling ring in action). Let's try it! The color is a heady auburn (1.5). The nose is explosive and rich offering huge rancio -almost an armagnac like rustic dried fruit- leather, red fruit compote, exotic wood and dark cacao. It's dense and dark, but also has this really high toned spice around the edges as well. On the palate, it's middle weight plus- heavier than most Fetters- offering stewed fruit, intense exotic barks, more leather and dense baking spices. The intensity begs for a big of water and the whisky absolutely adores a splash adding layers of more savory and sweet aromas and relenting its tannic edges on the palate adding sweet fruit and caramel. This is easily one of the best Fettercairns I've ever had and while it might not give you a good picture of the distillery style, which is distinctly NOT a monster sherry house, it does stand up well and delivers all the power and nuance you could want in any sherry bomb.