Lindores Abbey MCDXCIV

A distillery bottling of Lindores Abbey, bottled at 46%. Just 40000 bottles were filled. Lindores Abbey, in Fife, is widely called the spiritual home of Scotch whisky, the place named in the 1494 record of Friar John Cor. The whisky writer Michael Jackson called Lindores a pilgrimage, and the abbey is widely held to be the spiritual home of Scotch.

It was drawn off the distillery's copper stills, for a full, fruity make ready for active wood. A sherry cask wrapped the young spirit in dried fruit and a nutty depth. Active first fill wood pulls colour and flavour quickly into the young Lindores spirit. The late Dr Jim Swan shaped the cask policy, with his signature recharred red wine barriques. Barley is grown on the abbey land and water drawn from a borehole the monks first dug. The first single malt, MCDXCIV, the Roman numerals for 1494, was released in 2021. The Tironensian abbey was founded in 1191 on the banks of the Tay, and welcomed kings for centuries.

At 46% it is smooth and fruity. The Oloroso brings dried fruit, fig and a nutty depth. The texture is full and layered, the fruit lifted by oak. The finish runs rich, spiced and full. This is a young Lowland malt from where Scotch began.