We hope this finds you well and enjoying the first few weeks of 2023. Helen and I are just back from the Central Florida Highland Games where we were the ‘honoured guests’. The games are extremely popular with visitors coming from all over the States to attend; in fact there were over 30,000 at the event, sharing a passion for all things Scottish and it was a privilege for us to be able to spread the Lindores word to such an engaged audience. Our hosts were incredibly welcoming and keen to promote Lindores at all times for which we were extremely grateful.
Turning to matters closer to home, we are delighted to announce the release of the Friar John Cor Cask Strength Congregation Batch Chapter 1. A combination of Bourbon, Monbazillac, STR and Sherry casks, it is an absolutely delicious dram. Congratulations to Gary, Lorena and the distillery team for bringing it to life, we are sure it’s going to be a great success. It will be available from mid February, from your local stockist.
As we continue into 2023 let’s raise a glass of our award winning Lindores Abbey whisky and toast to a healthy and successful year to come.
Slàinte
Drew McKenzie Smith
Managing Director of Lindores Abbey Distillery
& Custodian of Lindores Abbey
DISTILLERY NEWS
Let’s start with the highlights of 2022! They include moving over to Crisp Malting to reduce our road miles; our new warehouses were built; we filled some truly excellent casks; we launched some fantastic bottlings, some as distillery exclusives on sale only in our Visitor Centre, and some as celebration of our monks’ home town of Tiron Gardais; and we had Thomas our Belgian intern exploring alternative uses of draff and distillers’ yeast. We also won some great awards!
Over Christmas we had a well-earned festive shutdown and the time off was enjoyed by all! But what is 2023 bringing? It started with a special run of malt through the distillery: we are running through 10t of Scotch Annat Malted Barley, grown and malted by the Crafty Maltsters over in Auchtermuchty. This is what we would call a heritage grain and I think we will be the first distillery in Fife to use it in a long, long time. It’s not a high- yielding strain, but that’s not why we are running it. Rather, it’s to give us a slightly different flavour profile to be working with. Here we have quality, nurtured materials from the past – on the nose as described by Lorena, very floral and sweet – very much like a wild flower meadow.
Just last week we launched our latest bottling – Friar John Cor Chapter 1 – what a dram that is, a blend of 4 different casks and bottled at cask strength, it’s Lindores at its very best! Here’s to 2023
Slàinte
Gary Haggart
Distillery Manager
CASK SAMPLES
The best part of my job is Sensory Analysis, that is my passion, and that is why I chose to study it in my last year of University in Chile. When I arrived in Scotland and discovered the beauty of Scotch Whisky I couldn’t ignore this unique product with all the compounds formed during the process that contribute to its aroma and flavour.
Last month I had the pleasure of trying our Lindores Single Malt matured in different types of casks filled in 2019.
My favourites casks were : Cask# 190699 Ex-Calvados @ 61.7%abv, a French cask with just three years of maturation: evolving as a complex, pleasing Single Malt with a burnished colour, mellow ripe red apples, sweet pears and floral notes on the nose. On the palate, nutmeg, cinnamon spices combined with sweet vanilla , fruity apples, some nuttiness and pleasant dark chocolate on the back of the tongue. Finished with a smooth vanilla and a touch of spice finish. Nice.
The next cask is outstanding : Cask# 190540, ExManzanilla Sherry (Spanish cask subcategory of a Fino Sherry) @ 60.9 %abv: yellow gold in colour, a beautiful cask giving green grapes, with citrus floral notes on the nose; a sea breeze and a subtle oak aroma. A great combination, on the palate releasing clean green fruitiness, sweet orchard fruits and salty marine notes with a hint of vanilla oak. Just right.
Every cask tells its own story; but I must say that Lindores New Make Spirit is getting better and better over the years. The ongoing, developing relationship between whisky and wood in the warehouse is fascinating.
Slàinte
Lorena Baez
Product Development
LINDORES WORLDWIDEE
We are working hard to get Lindores to all corners of the globe, and are hoping to be able to give you some good news about the USA in the next few weeks. We’re also about to do a launch in Norway, at the end of February and I recently visited the West Coast of Canada (Vancouver, Vancouver Island, North Edmonton, and Calgary) back in November and spent time with Pacific Wine and Spirits sales team, conducting tastings, and generally educating them on the Lindores brand.
I have also done market visits to Denmark and Germany and I am going back out to Germany again soon, so the word is certainly spreading!
Elliot Wynn Higgins
Export Manager
‘The Cask Strength Congregation Batch’
Chapter 1
Our newest release was matured in a blend of Bourbon, Monbazillac, STR, and Sherry casks. As with all Lindores bottlings it has no added colouring, is non-chill filtered and bottled onsite at the batch cask strength of 60.2% ABV. The introduction of the Monbazillac casks gives a sweetness and complexity that compliments perfectly the classic Lindores style.
The design of the unusual black bottle, mirroring the Exclusive 1494 First Release Bottle, draws on several elements of Lindores Abbey’s history, most obviously the dramatic black colour which is inspired by the black cloth tunics worn by the Lindores monks back in 1494. This unique bottle shape is also in homage to the magnificent stone pillars which would have been found throughout the Abbey, the remains of which can still be found in the ruins today.
These bottles will be available from mid February through selected stockists, so get in touch with your local bottle shop to reserve your bottle!
STOCKISTS
Lindores Abbey Distillery
Abbey Road
Newburgh, Fife KY14 6HH
United Kingdom
