Black Friday 2023 Lowland 15 Year Old

Lowland Single Malt Scotch Whisky

The Whisky Exchange

70cl / 54.2%

Our yearly tradition is back, and this Black Friday celebration hails from the Lowland distillery, Glenkinchie. It was aged in 60% ex-Buffalo Trace bourbon barrels and 40% refill oloroso sherry butts, imparting aromas of orchard fruit, lemon thyme and chamomile tea on the nose, followed by notes of tinned peaches and apple blossom throughout the palate.

£84.95

Vic Cameron, one of our whisky lecturers says: “The lyne arm is part of the still – also called the lye pipe – and it’s what connects the top of the still to the condenser unit. The slope of the lye pipe is really important with regards to reflux in the final spirit.”

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It’s almost that time again – Fèis Ìle is just a few weeks away and we have an exclusive festival release with only 580 bottles available, almost ready to leave our warehouses and head to selected retailers. Distilled in 2009, this release has been 15 years in the making. Who better to tell you about the process of creating this special bottling than our Operations Director Graeme Mackeddie. Take a look below to read this ode to Mac-Talla Fèis Ìle 2024 Limited Edition.

In 2019 during routine sampling of casks in our warehousing at Aberargie, we identified a small parcel of 2009 bourbon barrels of Islay single malt that showed potential to be something quite special. At the time, the whisky was ten years old, resting in refill bourbon barrels – its particularly fruity notes, and soft peat belied its age. A notable whisky, which piqued our interest at the time.

Some weeks passed, and the opportunity to acquire a parcel of Caribbean rum casks through family business ties presented itself.  As a self-confessed lover of rum, and in particular maturation and finishing of Scotch Whisky in rum casks – it didn’t take long to formulate a plan. That plan? To introduce Islay single malt of notably fruit-forward character, to some fresh, vibrant rum casks – with the ambition to put a specific emphasis on those fruit notes, and nurture the whisky into something quite special.

On the 6th of September 2019, a rotation of twelve fresh rum casks were filled with the 2009 Islay spirit, and laid down in rack 57A, one of the highest and warmest spots in Warehouse No.1.

Over the months and years I visited the casks regularly, eager to see how they were developing. Our patience was duly rewarded – and in time the whisky came on as we’d hoped. The fruitiness of the bold Caribbean rum started to shine through. At the same time, lingering, chewy vanilla notes developed along with some subtle spice – these notes complimented the tropical fruit notes beautifully.

Unlike many casks in use in the rum industry and then in subsequent use within the whisky industry, this particular parcel of rum casks started life in the rum industry as virgin American oak barrels, and saw only one use before setting sail to us. The results are rum casks that are both active in terms of the influence its previous contents has, but also the influence of its wood. The active American oak generates flavours and aromas of vanilla, coconut, brown sugar along with some subtle cinnamon and cloves. The cask’s former contents of rum combined with the fruit forward Islay whisky offer a generous cacophony of tropical fruit notes, with pineapple and papaya particularly prevalent.

When I was set the challenge of finding something special to bottle for Fèis Ìle 2024, I knew exactly what I’d like to bottle. From the twelve casks, I’ve hand-selected two casks to bring together, that showcase the tropical fruit character of these 2009 rum casks perfectly.

COMING SOON…

Available from selected retailers and at our Mac-Talla Fèis Ìle events and Islay Whisky Shop from the 16th May. Make sure you keep up to date by following us on social media.

As Spring makes itself know here at Lindores and we welcome in the sunnier days, things just get busier and busier.

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In the Visitors Centre we have welcomed tours and visitors from across the globe. On one particularly busy day we had visitors from 5 different continents – from Edinburgh to El Paso! Guests have been excited to discover some changes in the Visitors Centre including lots of new Lindores merch which will be available on the website soon – sadly our April 1^st release of “Abbey – pour femme” and “Bear – pour homme” proved too popular and are now all gone!

We have also launched our new menu of cocktails and whisky flights, along with an incredible new menu for our events. Our chef, Andrew Wilkie, is a master when it comes to creating delicious dishes using wonderful produce Scotland has to offer – and this menu absolutely exemplifies this with Lindores Lamb, St Andrews cheddar and Aqua Vitae custard (although thankfully not on the same plate!).

If you are looking for a venue for a private or corporate event – please do get in touch.

Some of our friends from across Europe might have been lucky enough to catch one of the Lindores team on one of the many trips they have taken over the past month. It has been a typically jet-set month for Elliot and Lorena with visits to Belgium and Germany. Lorena had a wonderful time in Limburg sharing the good word of Lindores – a particular highlight for her was a whisky and cheese tasting organised by a local expert cheesemonger. She can now wholeheartedly recommend pairing our STR release with blue cheese and enjoying some Red Leicester, tomatoes and pesto with our Bourbon cask releases.

Closer to home, Murray, John, Scott and Seb have been all over Scotland for tastings and shows. The Clackmannanshire Whisky Festival was a great success with lots of interest being shown in our spirit, and Murray had a similarly good show at The Biscuit Factory in Edinburgh later in the month. John and Murray also held a particularly interesting, and unique, tasting at the reopening of the Rutland Hotel in Edinburgh. The tasting was held in a bedroom to showcase the Hotel’s stylish new refurbishment – hosting 30 people for a whisky tasting with most of them sitting on the bed was not something they thought they’d ever pictured themselves doing!

For those of you interested in cask ownership at Lindores – it has been another interesting month for our Cask Custodian, Matt. He had the chance to fill a fantastic ex-peated cask for a client this month, and he is very excited about our imminent delivery of exotic casks. Keep an eye on our Facebook page for updates on these or contact Matt at casks@lindoresabbeydistillery.com for more information.

Finally, we celebrated the famous distillery cats’ 7^th birthdays! FJC and Vesper were showered in love by their 70+ thousand Instagram followers and indulged with lashings of cream – they celebrated by sleeping for most of the day. Oh, to be a cat!

Helen and Drew McKenzie Smith
Custodians of Lindores Abbey Distillery

We have launched our brand new Hearts & Crafts 5 Pineau des Charentes. This beautifully well-balanced whisky is a must-have for your collection. Prepare to taste the rich notes of summer berries, almond and baking spices in every sip.

Keep your eyes peeled on our social channels this Sunday. We’ll be posting a video to show you some shots behind-the-scenes at the distillery as our team bottled this product ready for you all to enjoy.This limited-edition product is selling fast though so don’t linger… purchase yours from our website below, at our distillery in Stourton or at either of our two shops in Broadway and Bourton-on-the-Water.

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In celebration of Earth Day which took place recently, we are thrilled to share some exciting news with you – we have just installed two bee hives at our distillery. By welcoming these precious pollinators and providing them with a safe haven for them to thrive, we are continuing our efforts and commitment to help care for our beautiful surroundings that make us who we are today.

As the bees get settled into their new home, we can’t wait to see the positive impact they’ll have on the biodiversity of our home and on our Wetlands project. Stay tuned for more updates coming soon!

Cotswolds Distillery Phillip’s Field, Whichford Road Stourton Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire CV36 5EX

Our exclusive bottling comes from the Benriach distillery, located in the Speyside region of Scotland. It has been distilled in 2011, matured for 12 years and bottled from Pedro Ximenez Hogshead, without chill-filtration or artificial colouring by Alistair Walker, exclusively for our shop.

NOSE Raisins with dark muscovado sugar, followed by walnut oil and figs.

PALATE Delicate aniseed leads to rich espresso with buttery hot cross buns.

FINISH Longing and moreish.  Only 328 bottles were produced.

£79.99

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Low wines are essentially an intermediate product in the distillation process, emerging after the first distillation run. Vic Cameron, one of our whisky lecturers says: “Low wines is distillate collected from a wash still. So, we charge up a wash still with wash. We run the still and collect all the distillate as low wines. This run takes the liquid from about 8% or 9% alcohol up to about 22% or 25% alcohol.”

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Our whisky is made with little automation, and we prefer to rely on the ‘human touch’ throughout our spirit-making. This emphasis on people throughout the production process also serves to create employment that would otherwise be lost in a more ‘push-button’ operation.

Our commitment to developing career opportunities for young islanders now manifests in our Spirit Hall through one of the youngest distilling teams in Scotland.

With an average age of just 26 years, Rebekah, Thomas, Paddy, and Domhnall are now fully trained and qualified in the art and science of distilling spirits.

Under the mentorship of our Head Distiller Norman Ian, they use their judgement and experience to decide cut-points by nose and sight, manually adjusting the steam valves and making considered decisions as a team at every step.

The difference this makes to the final results may be hard to define but we believe their growing skills at the stills bring something extra to the spirits we finally bottle.

Read on to learn more about these young people who produce our whisky and gin, and if you’d like to enjoy the fruits of their labour then please consider buying a bottle or two from our online shop.

Le gach deagh dhùrachd,

Mike Donald, Chief Storyteller

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MEET REBEKAH MORRISON
22 YEARS OF AGE

Hailing from Bowglass here in the Isle of Harris, Rebekah went through her school years just a short walk from the Isle of Harris Distillery’s doors.

Rebekah began her career working in our distillery cafe at the age of 17. Soon after, a distilling apprenticeship became available and it proved a chance to embrace a whole new challenge.

After undertaking 2 years of training, Rebekah qualified with flying colours and now makes the historic single malt whisky, The Hearach.

Working close to home is something held close to Rebekah’s heart as she says, “The most important thing is the ability to live and work where I grew up…”

Rebekah was also our first woman distiller, something we are proud of, and we hope her success here inspires others to take on other such traditional male-dominated roles.

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MEET THOMAS MACRAE
26 YEARS OF AGE

Originally hailing from the village of Balallan, Thomas now lives close to the distillery here in our home village of Tarbert.

Thomas always had the distillery project on his radar and took a keen interest in our progress from afar.

But, when a distilling job opportunity arose, Thomas took advantage of the on-the-job training that would be provided and decided to “give it a shot”, in his own words.

Having come from a background of fishing, the life of a distiller inevitably came with steep new learning curves but he’s risen to the occasion every time.

Thomas tells, ‘Every day is different as a distiller. It keeps me on my toes but as a strong team here at the Isle of Harris Distillery, we are all working together towards the same goal”.

Learning he’s both proud and privileged to have secured the role of a distiller with us, we’re delighted he can further his skills and learnings whilst staying close to his island friends and family.

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PADDY SINCLAIR
29 YEARS OF AGE

Paddy was brought up in the village of Tong in the Isle of Lewis and his mother’s side of the family is from Huisinis here in Harris.

He moved to Glasgow to complete a BSc at Glasgow University and then undertook an MSc in Brewing and Distilling before the opportunity to return home and become a distiller with us presented a career path that couldn’t be passed up.

Paddy lists many pros to his job but he places his colleagues high up on his list. He adds that the chance to live and work in one of the most beautiful parts of the world, all while developing his love of whisky-making, is also a bonus.

Leaving city life to settle here in Harris, he’s now able to spend time with old school friends, play in the local shinty team and cherish the time he gets to spend with his Hearaich family, including his grandmother in Huisinis.

Paddy says, “I am also able to add to the population number here which is another great plus in my mind, even if it is only a small number…”

MEET DOMHNALL MACRAE
26 YEARS OLD

With both Scalpay and Leverburgh blood running through his veins, Dol proudly tells that his family come from the Isle of Harris.

Growing up in Fort William, visiting Harris was a regular holiday tradition for him, but in April 2022, Donald decided to make the move to the island for himself.

It wasn’t long before fellow distiller and shinty teammate, Paddy informed him of a distiller opportunity on his work team and the rest, as they say, is history.

Despite the cliché of a ‘family feel’ at the distillery, it couldn’t be more true for him as he often feels it’s more like a friend group than a work one having now settled in well and embraced his role as a Harris distiller.

Domhnall tells us, “I feel at home in Harris. There’s the social aspect, sports and playing as part of the shinty team, spending time with family and feeling at ease with my career and future ahead. The scenery still catches me out and I try my best not to take it for granted.”

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