Lindores Abbey Scotch Whisky

Right, this one is going to go back pretty far. Cast your mind back to 1494. Might be tough, but do your best. So, it's over 500 years ago, and you'd like some whisky. What do you do? If you're King James IV, what you do is commission Brother John Cor of Lindores Abbey in Fife to make you some aqua vitae with eight bolls of malt. That is in fact what happened, and it is now officially recognised as the first recorded distillation of Scotch whisky.

Fast forward to 1912, and Lindores Abbey was sold to the family of current owners Drew and Helen Mackenzie Smith, the husband-and-wife team who act as custodians of the historic grounds. In 2013, the family embarked on a £10 million project that would bring Scotch whisky distillation back to the place of its first recorded occurrence. Eventually, in October 2017, the Lindores Abbey Distillery was opened, with the first spirits running from the still soon afterwards. The late Jim Swan was brought on board to offer expertise and guidance, helping with the design of the still shape and cask recipes. In June 2021, the first single malt Scotch whisky from Lindores Abbey was released to the public, bearing the name Lindores Abbey MCDXCIV, a reference to the historic distillation that happened in the very same place in 1494.