The Fettercairn Vanguard Series: a sense of synaesthesia

The Fettercairn Vanguard Series is an ambitious project from a distillery that has been flexing its creative muscles in recent years.

We’ve spoken before about the revival of the brand’s identity, which was rooted in backing the right people (such as distillery manager Stewart Walker and master whisky maker Gregg Glass) and the character of the spirit, one rich in biscuity sweetness, gingery spice, and its tell-tale tropical fruit note. 

Its Scottish Oak programme demonstrates how Fettercairn has an appetite for evolution, but this new range isn’t just about casks or age statements. It’s about how whisky can be experienced through our senses, even ones we don’t normally connect.

The three-year series kicks off with inaugural releases Fettercairn Vanguard 1st Release and Fettercairn 29 Year Old – Vanguard Rare. At the heart of the idea is the whisky maker, Glass, whose synaesthetic way of tasting in colour inspired the entire project.

What is synaesthesia?

Synaesthesia is a neurological phenomenon where stimulating one sense sparks an involuntary reaction in another. Imagine seeing colours when you hear words, or feeling a touch on your own body when you watch someone else being touched. For some, days of the week are coloured; others literally “taste” sounds. 

It’s not obvious from the outside. Many people live with it without ever mentioning it. You probably know someone. A study at my old university found that 22 in 500 students experienced it. I should declare that I do, too, when I taste things. I wonder if it might make a fun addition to a tasting note? Answers on a postcard.  

To those who don’t, synaesthesia can sound strange, even pretentious. But it’s not linked to creativity or intelligence. It’s simply a personal experience, one that in the right hands can help communicate what we’re experiencing. Instead of just saying “oak” or “vanilla,” Glass sees a spectrum of colours too. He has a sense of when a whisky needs more “red”.

The Vanguard Series takes that perspective and runs with it.

Fettercairn Vanguard 1st Release

The series opens with a small-batch whisky matured for 14 years in bourbon casks before a finishing spell in hybrid barrels crafted from American oak staves and heavily toasted Scottish oak heads. The oak was sourced from naturally wind-felled Highland trees, which were cooperated with Speyside Cooperage.

The result balances Fettercairn’s signature tropical fruit core with warming waves of spice, a fresh but fitting way to launch this new direction. My own synaes-tastic tasting note is pink blending into orange with flecks of silver. I don’t really tend to get shapes or any kind of structure, just big splashes of colour. I’m a simple man, really. 

Fettercairn 29 Year Old – Vanguard Rare

If the 1st Release is the experimental spark, Vanguard Rare is the deep dive. Limited to just 99 bottles worldwide, this 29-year-old began life in a 250-litre refill bourbon hogshead for 25 years, developing layers of tropical fruit, vanilla, and cereal notes. It was then moved into a 225-litre medium-toasted French pink oak cask from Demptos Bordeaux.

Pink oak is rare, prized for its high carotenoid content, which brings aromatic spice, red fruit, and floral character (strawberries, in particular) that play beautifully with Fettercairn’s tropical style. I found this one started in a rich, almost mahogany kind of brown that swirled into silvery blue, with flashes of coral echoing the 1st Release.

Fettercairn, Mogwai, and painting tasting notes

To emphasise the synaesthetic theme, Fettercairn has brought in musicians too. Barry Burns of Mogwai and Kathryn Joseph collaborated for the first time on Lorica Pink. It’s based directly on Glass’s tasting notes.

At the launch events, guests (including me) tasted Vanguard whiskies while blindfolded, listening to the track, and even painting our own tasting notes. I’m a horrible artist, so you will NEVER see what I created. But I thoroughly enjoyed being taken through a new kind of whisky tasting, one that was a multi-sensory experiment, equal parts cerebral and chaotic.

Fettercairn’s Vanguard Series isn’t about rewriting the rulebook, but it does challenge how whisky can be framed, tasted, and even described. With synaesthesia as its muse and a blend of music, science, and open-mindedness, it asks drinkers to rethink what’s possible in flavour. The journey starts here, and it’s already looking vividly colourful.

Then to Dram Bar

We capped off the sensory experience with a late-night, passport-controlled session of alchemical mayhem in the basement of London’s Dram Bar. Each room had its own cocktail and theme, and staff stamped our passports to confirm our attendance. Some ideas worked better than others. But, sipping a canned Mango & Cocoa Butter Highball made with Fettercairn 12 Year Old from a vending machine while Jurassic 5 spun on the record player was a definite win.

But that was nothing compared to the highlight: a masterclass from bar co-founder Chris Tanner led in the basement, titled “Chris’ Lab”. In front of a swirling rotovap machine, he explained his love of getting people to engage with whisky by adding water. While most add water to bring the ABV down, that’s not the purpose here. Instead, he references the old bartender joke: alcohol is a solution. 

“At a high ABV, a lot of aldehydes and acids are kept in solution. When you bring the ABV down, even if it’s half a degree, by incremental amounts, you increase the aromatic properties in the whiskies. Like letting a wine breathe”. It’s worth noting here that master blenders taste whisky at 20% ABV for this very reason. Perfumiers do a similar thing. 

Dram Bar Fettercairn 12 Masterclass

Tanner took Fettercairn 12 Year Old as inspiration to create three hydrosols:

Mango – distilled aromatics only, no acid or sugar, to highlight the whisky’s tropical fruit note. One drop amplified greener mango flavours, though some found juicier, sweeter notes.

Peach – brought out caramel sweetness first, then stone fruit, with a drier, savoury edge.

Hazelnut and acorn – chosen to mirror waxiness (hazelnut) and tannin (acorn), adding woody dryness, cacao bitterness. There’s an accentuation of the fruit too, almost strawberry.

A drop was added to three separate glasses of Fetty 12 so we could gauge the impact of each hydrosol. At the end, we added the mango hydrosol to our third glass to layer it on the hazelnut and acorn. This amplifies those original top juicy fruit notes with an added melon-heavy bump. It was like rebuilding the whisky. 

The point wasn’t cocktail trickery, but clarity. By breaking the whisky into parts, you taste it differently. Tanner compared it to molecular gastronomy, where flavour pairings are guided by shared compounds. Here, dilution makes certain elements louder. Replace one hydrosol with another and you showcase different elements of the whisky, while never compromising its DNA.

It also resonated with the wider approach of Fettercairn and the Vanguard Series. Few of us have a rotovap handy. But what you can do is grab a blindfold, put on some music, and taste a whisky. See what happens when you do. It’s a nice reminder that exploration isn’t only a distant journey, but a mindset. With whisky, that adventure can begin the moment you raise the glass.