Lindores Abbey Distillery | The Oct Newsletter

On the 5^th October we were delighted to celebrate the Distillery’s 6^th anniversary. With the help of renowned Tartan Noir author Ian Rankin and whisky legend Richard Paterson, the doors to the Distillery and Visitor Centre opened six years ago and the legacy of whisky making was reinstated to Lindores. Of course, in a way, we are celebrating our 529^th anniversary, and it has been a pleasure over the past years to share the incredible story of Lindores with visitors from across the globe.

It has been an amazing and eventful six years – even with the slight hiccup of a global pandemic, we have managed to achieve an awful lot. Our visitor centre team have won and maintained a five-star reputation, whilst our production team have been raking in the awards for our spirits: gold at The San Francisco World Spirits Competition and gold at the International Wine and Spirits Competition to name a few!

Of course, none of this would have been possible without the tireless work of our fantastic Lindores team and our loyal members and customers. We can’t wait to see where the next six years will take us!

Slàinte

Drew & Helen McKenzie Smith
Custodians of Lindores Abbey

Opening Day!

DISTILLERY NEWS

We are thrilled to have returned to mashing following silent season. Our break has allowed us to carry out some essential maintenance, and now we are back up and running with all guns (or mash tuns) blazing! Production has been running smoothly with October being an easier month to make spirit thanks to temperature and humidity sitting just right. The staff from the distillery and visitor centre alike are happy to be back working again amongst the delicious aromas of distillation.

We received a delivery of 60 casks from Casknolia in Spain. With three varieties of Sherry Butts on board, the team swiftly unloaded a mixture of Oloroso, Pedro Ximinez and Paulo Cortado casks. We can’t wait to see what complex flavours they impart on to our spirit – the hard part about whisky making is always the waiting!

The bottling hall has been busy bottling and labelling a variety of single casks for both export and home markets as well as producing our core products, the cask owners release and 1494 member’s release.

Slàinte

Gary Haggart
Distillery Manager at Lindores Abbey

 SQUAREMILE INTERVIEW

Have you ever wondered how we have managed to blend our desire for innovation with our respect for the 800+ years of Lindores history? Well, for those who missed it – our founder, Drew Mckenzie Smith, answers just that in a fascinating interview in Square Mile magazine.

READ NOW

ONE OF ONE AUCTION

On the 5^th October, Sotheby’s hosted the second edition of their Distillers One Of One auction at Hopeton House. We were delighted to donate a very special Thiron virgin oak cask to the auction to be included amongst some other incredible and unique lots.

The sale of the cask contributed towards the £2.25 million raised for the Youth Action Fund which helps to improve the lives of disadvantaged youth across Scotland. We hope that the successful bidder will join us in raising a dram for such a brilliant cause!

WHISKY LIVE WARSAW

Production Operative, Scott, was excited to attend his first international whisky show. He, and his girlfriend Lily (who handily speaks Polish!), jetted over to Poland for Whisky Live Warsaw as our Lindores representatives. They had a fantastic time and Scott reported that the show was great fun. He was pleased to meet so many Lindores fans (and to convert some new ones!) and he said that several visitors to the stand were “blown away” that our whisky was so young given its depth of flavour and complexity.

Judging by how much he enjoyed it, we’re sure he will be first to volunteer for the next show, so maybe some of you will meet him repping for Lindores at a stand in the future!

LINDORES INTERNATIONAL

On the export side of things, we have had a great beginning in Sweden, officially launching there on the 16th October. It was fantastic to receive a call just two days later that all of their Lindores had sold out. The second order is leaving imminently, and we have a feeling that we have a bright future with Sweden!

 DISTILLERY EXCLUSIVE

Our newest release hit the distillery shelves earlier this month and the reception has been excellent.

Available exclusively to buy at the distillery, our Old Forester Bourbon ASB has a delicious aroma and palette. On the nose you can expect, smooth buttercream and caramel, whilst the taste will give you mellow vanilla, apple and banana.

As a cask strength bottling, this dram packs a punch at 60.8% ABV, but the delicious complexity of our spirit really comes through in this dram, with a sweet compliment lent from the impressive Old Forester casks.

The chance to get your hands on a bottle definitely makes a visit to the distillery more tempting than ever!