The Lindores Distilling Co. Ltd. Lindores Abbey Aqua Vitae Cask #Batch 001

The Lindores Distilling Co. Ltd. Lindores Abbey Aqua Vitae Cask #Batch 001 is a spirit drink from Lindores Abbey, not a whisky but a revival of aqua vitae, the botanical spirit the abbey's monks once made. The 1494 Exchequer Rolls record Friar John Cor of Lindores making aqua vitae for King James IV, the earliest written reference to distilling in Scotland.

Aqua Vitae takes the distillery's new make spirit and steeps it with herbs and botanicals, many gathered from the abbey grounds, in the manner of the medieval water of life. It is unaged, clear and aromatic, made to be drunk neat, over ice or in a cocktail. Aqua vitae, the water of life, was the original spirit, distilled by monasteries across medieval Europe from local grain and flavoured with whatever herbs grew to hand, long before the spirit was aged in oak to become whisky.

At 40% it is fragrant and warming, with sweet gale, citrus peel, cleavers and a gentle spice over a clean barley spirit. A living link to the drink first recorded at Lindores over five centuries ago, and a fine aperitif. Drinking it is as close as anyone can come to the spirit Friar John Cor would have known, made on the very ground where its story in Scotland was first written.