Although July is traditionally rather quiet with many Scottish people away on their holidays, this corner of Fife has been very busy!

The 150th Golf Open was held at nearby St Andrews, and was a fantastically busy period for us. The visitors book is filled with wonderful, enthusiastic and complimentary comments from guests from all over the US and the world who were visiting Fife for the Open.

We also held a series of lunches, dinners, tastings and highland games throughout the week for sponsor companies and their guests and the feedback for all these events has been, to a tee (sorry) nothing short of outstanding.

Even though we are in the midst of the silent season, the distillery team have been far from quiet as maintenance is undertaken, the boiler has its five year big service and there are lots of other annual jobs to take on during this time. The bottling line continues to be the busiest small facility in Scotland and we praise everybody working on it during the soaring temperatures.

We have been joined this month by Thomas Debing who is working as an intern for six weeks. He will be studying the generation of biogas using draff, pot ale and spent lees. He will also spend time learning how a distillery functions and getting hands-on with the process.  He has come from Chateau Pabus in Belgium and we are delighted to be passing on our knowledge to another generation.

Finally, we found themselves back in the gorgeous village of Thiron Gardais hosting a group of journalists and suppliers at the launch of a new Thiron virgin oak bottling. In association with our distributors in France, L’Explorateur du Gout they took guests on a guided tour of the ancient abbey and its gorgeous gardens. We planted an oak tree with our cask suppliers NAO Oak, before hosting a tasting and delicious lunch on the sunny terrace overlooking the abbey. None of this would have been possible if it hadn’t been for the help of our friend Victor, the mayor of Thiron, the staff of the abbey and Simon, owner of the local hotel.

Stay safe and stay well, from our corner of Fife

Slàinte

Drew & Helen McKenzie Smith
Custodians of Lindores Abbey Distillery