We sell gift vouchers - for more details call us on 0115 911 0555 or email us at eann@gauntleys.com
We sell gift vouchers - for more details call us on 0115 911 0555 or email us at eann@gauntleys.com
Region: Lowlands
Owner: Lindores Distilling Co
Founded: 2017
According to owner Drew Mackenzie Smith, the first written reference to whisky being produced in Scotland relates to it being produced at Lindores Abbey. The Exchequer Rolls of 1494 lists that, by order of King James IV, ‘eight bols malt’ be presented to Tironensian monk Friar John Cor to produce ‘aqua vitae’.
The Tironensian Order or the Order of Tiron was a medieval monastic order founded by St Bernard of Tiron in 1109. The order was named after the location of the mother abbey, Abbaye de la Sainte-Trinité de Tiron (Tiron Abbey) situated in Perche, some 35 miles west of Chartres in France. The order was invited to Scotland by David I, king of Scotland in about 1113.
The order eventually founded an Abbey in 1128 at Kelso. King David’s grandsons King William ‘the Lion’ and Earl David of Huntingdon and the Garioch, established abbeys at Arbroath in 1178 and Lindores in 1191. Given its close proximity to the boarder with England, by the 1500s it had suffered severely from repeated English invasions. Finally in 1545 pretty much was destroyed except for the fragment of the abbey church that survives today.
In 1912 the Abbey and a neighbouring farm was sold to a farmer by the name of John Howison. The lands were passed down through the generations and are now owned by Howison’s great-grandson Drew Mackenzie Smith and his wife, Helen. Mackenzie Smith had long considered building a distillery at Lindores, and finally embarked on a £10 million project in 2013, with backing from European investors.
Like some of the other new Lowland distilleries they have opted to produce a fruity and estery spirit. The wort is fermented for a long 114 hours. The second distillation takes place in relatively small spirit stills (3500ltrs) and they have opted for quite an early cut at 75 or 76%, before running off the foreshots at 66%. The resulting new make, which was released in 2018 has a soft fruitiness with some cereal character and a subtle ‘toshan-like strawberry Turkish delight note.
They have opted to primarily mature the spirit in a combination of ex-Bourbon hogsheads, ex-Sherry Butts and STR Wine Barriques. Spirit from all of these casks has been sympathetically blended together to form their core bottling called the MCDXCIV. They have also released the separate components in a series of limited-edition bottlings called ‘The casks of Lindores’ and they provide a fascinating insight into how the spirit interacts with the oak. However, the MCDXCIV is a fabulous whisky and well worth trying.
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