The Lindores Distilling Co. Ltd. Lindores Abbey The Casks of Lindores II

A distillery bottling of Lindores Abbey, bottled at 49.4%. Lindores Abbey Distillery, in Fife, stands on the ground named in Scotch whisky's founding document, the 1494 Exchequer Rolls. The whisky writer Michael Jackson called Lindores a pilgrimage, and the abbey is widely held to be the spiritual home of Scotch.

Distilled from local barley in copper stills on borehole water, giving the orchard fruit and butterscotch of the house style. An ex-Bourbon barrel shaped it, American oak under the fruit. The layered, fruity make takes a wide range of casks well. 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 a full 49.4% it is bold and fruity. The ex-Bourbon lends vanilla, orchard fruit and butterscotch. 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.