Lindores Abbey Casks of Lindores Whisky Review!

Lowlander Lindores Abbey Distillery's whisky has been around for nearly two years now, but I haven't actually gotten around to trying any. Until now! 

Lindores Abbey is one of the "new breed" of Lowland single malts. Easily the fastest-growing of the five official Scotch whisky regions, the Lowlands is a large one geographically, and it actually produces more whisky than Speyside. That's down to the gigantic grain whisky plants in and around the central belt of course, including the largest distillery in Scotland, Diageo's Cameronbridge site which pumps out over 136,000,000 litres of grain spirit per year. But when it comes to malt whisky, just twenty years ago the Lowlands was home to only three active distilleries; Beam Suntory's Auchentoshan, Diageo's Glenkinchie, and the then-recently revived Bladnoch. The Lowlands region had seen a number of closures during the industry's most recent low point of the early 1980s-early 1990s, including famous names like Rosebank and St. Magdalene and less famous grain distilleries like Carsebridge and Cambus. Bladnoch had also sat silent for seven years, until it reopened under new owners in 2000. Things are a little different now though, with close to 15 active malt whisky distilleries in the Lowlands, with at least another ten currently in development. That latter figure includes the revival of Rosebank nearly twenty years after it closed, although it's really a completely new distillery built on the original site. Most of the new crop of Lowland distilleries are located in the central belt, being close to Glasgow and Edinburgh, but there's also a smaller revival in Fife, the peninsula that sits between Edinburgh and Dundee. The region is more widely known for golf than it is for whisky, but that's changing now. Tiny farm distillery Daftmill was one of the first of these new Fife distilleries, opening back in 2003, and is still the most famous of the bunch. Unfortunately that fame is mainly due to their whisky being extremely scarce, even five years after their first release.

In the north of Fife you'll find the small town of Newburgh, and on the edge of that town you'll find the ruins of Lindores Abbey church, which was built in the early-12th century and operated until the late-16th century when it was sacked and closed down by John Knox and his brutal Reformation movement which essentially changed Scotland from a Catholic nation to a Protestant one. More relevant to us though is the fact that Lindores Abbey is closely tied to the history of Scotch whisky. The earliest written record of whisky production in Scotland dates back to 1494, when King James IV granted "eight bolls of malt" (equivalent to half a tonne) to one Friar John Cor of Lindores Abbey, to "make aqua vitae". Aqua vitae is Latin for "water of life", or "uisge beatha" (pronounced "oos-ga-bay") in Gaelic, which was then shortened to uisge ("oos-ga"), which was then anglicised to whisky. Further adding to the history of whisky in the area, during archaeological work in 2018 remnants of a distillation vat were found at the site, along with traces of barley, oats, wheat, and charcoal. The legendary whisky writer Michael Jackson visited the site circa 2001, going on to write about the abbey and it's history in his book "Scotland and it's Whiskies". Prior to this the site owners had been unaware of the abbey's link to Scotch whisky history, and Jackson's book was the spark which eventually, 16-years later, would inspire the owners to build a distillery of their own.

On the farmland across the road from the historic ruins you'll find Lindores Abbey Distillery. Founded in 2016 with distillation first taking place in late 2017, this is a small, privately-owned distillery with a capacity of approximately 260,000 litres per annum. Lindores was yet another distillery that was heavily influenced by the late Dr. Jim Swan, employing his go-to recipe of clear wort, long fermentation (just under 120 hours in this case) in wooden washbacks, and slow distillation in small stills with boil balls and downwards-angled lyne arms, plus the use of STR and/or first-fill casks. The idea behind all of this is to give a light, fruity spirit that will mature relatively quickly and will lend itself well to a range of different casks, preferably without sacrificing distillery / spirit character - which is helped by bottling at 46% and above, and without added colouring or chill filtration. Unfortunately Dr. Swan passed away before distillation began at Lindores, so the actual distillation regimen is all down to the distillery staff - which interestingly uses one larger wash still and two smaller spirit stills. So I'm guessing we'll also see a triple distilled release in future. 

Speaking of different cask types, I suppose we should talk about the whisky! Lindores single malt first hit the shelves in July 2021. Rather than some limited release collectable in fancy packaging - although the bottle design is certainly unique, as you can see below - this bottling would become the core range Lindores product, with the first commemorative batch consisting of 12,000 bottles released at 46% ABV. It was a mix of three cask types: ex-bourbon, ex-Oloroso sherry, and ex-STR red wine casks. Today though, the three whiskies that we're looking at are the next step from Lindores, titled "The Casks of Lindores". As you can probably guess, they've separated the three cask types that go into the core range single malt to show how the spirit works in the individual casks. So we have an ex-bourbon barrel matured, an ex-STR red wine barrique matured, and an ex-Oloroso sherry butt matured, all presented at a slightly higher bottling strength of 49.4% ABV. These are obviously young whiskies, so we should get a good idea of the distillery character with each - the (natural) colour on that sherry cask matured is hard to ignore though, despite being a young whisky matured in big 500-litre casks. Obviously very fresh casks, so that'll be an interesting one in comparison to the others - a bit of a sherry bomb, perhaps? Pricing on all of the Lindores single malts is very reasonable on these shores, at $110 AUD for the core range bottling and $125 AUD for each of these "Casks of Lindores" releases. The samples for this review were kindly sent to me, without any obligation to review, by Scott Farrow of Wonderland Drinks, the Australian importer for Lindores, among other brands such as Bimber and North Star. Let's see how they go! 

Lindores Abbey "Casks of Lindores" Ex-Bourbon, NAS, 49.4%. Lowlands, Scotland.

Fully matured in ex-bourbon barrels, non-chill filtered, natural colour.

Colour: Pale gold. 

Nose: Light, fresh & malty. A little nippy, i.e. hot chilli flakes. Beyond that is warm barley porridge, fresh sweet stone fruit - white peach especially - with vanilla custard in the background. Touch of toasted oak, baked red apple, and cinnamon. 

Texture: Light weight. Malty, fresh, lightly creamy. No heat here, that nose prickle doesn't carry through on the palate. 

Taste: Creamy vanilla custard, more barley porridge & sweet stone fruit. Baked red apple, white peach, touch of sweet green grape. Black pepper, nutmeg, toasted oak again. A little tangy & creamy lemon around the edges. Lemon cheesecake. 

Finish: Short length. Dusty barley porridge. Malty, fruity & spicy. That black pepper and toasted oak coming back with vanilla custard and that creamy, citric tang in the background. 

Score: 3 out of 5. 

Notes: Young & fresh, as expected, but there's nothing wrong with that at all - this is a very tasty young Lowlander! The spirit itself is clearly very good, and the bourbon casks have done a great job in the time that they had. Interesting that the nose prickle didn't carry through to the palate, which is a good thing, and I'd assume it's because of the creaminess of the spirit. This is certainly very promising for the distillery's future, although there's no reason not to enjoy it now! A great example of the youthful, malty "new" Lowland style. 

Lindores Abbey "Casks of Lindores" Ex-STR, NAS, 49.4%. Lowlands, Scotland.

Fully matured in STR (shaved, toasted & re-charred) red wine barriques, non-chill filtered, natural colour.

Colour: Brass. 

Nose: Fruity, fresh & spicy. A little prickly again. Fresh red apple, orange, and apricot. Touch of red grape, and toffee. Spicy toasted oak. Creamy sweet cheesecake with fruit syrup. 

Texture: Light-medium weight. Malty, creamy, spicy. No heat at all, once again the nose prickle doesn't carry through. 

Taste: Spicy, creamy & fruity. Fresh sweet orange, vanilla cream. Apricot syrup over creamy cheesecake (continental, not baked), with the sweet biscuit base. Black pepper & grassy malt, touch of grape skins (tannins) as well. 

Finish: Short length. More sweet orange, vanilla cream, apricot syrup, sweet continental cheesecake. Spicy toasted oak, and mild wine tannins again (red grape skins). 

Score: 3 out of 5. 

Notes: Richer & spicier (as in spices, not alcohol heat / prickle) than the ex-bourbon cask, as you'd expect. Those creamy continental cheesecake notes are interesting, and they work well against the fruitiness and mild tannins. There's obviously more weight and more cask here than in the ex-bourbon, that's what STR casks do of course, but the creamy & malty notes from the spirit still show through nicely.

Lindores Abbey "Casks of Lindores" Ex-Oloroso Sherry, NAS, 49.4%. Lowlands, Scotland.

Fully matured in first-fill Oloroso sherry butts (500-litre casks), non-chill filtered, natural colour. 

Colour: Red bronze. 

Nose: Rich & sweet, a little metallic too. Copper coins, dried orange, sweet & thick blackcurrant cordial (Ribena). No nose prickle to this one. The malty warmth comes through with more time. 

Texture: Medium weight. Sweet, metallic, fruity. No heat at all. 

Taste: Toasted oak, wood spices, dried orange, prune juice, and blackcurrant cordial (Ribena) again. Touches of creamy vanilla underneath, with a slight hint of sweet maltiness. A little nutty as well, walnut, and a touch of marzipan. 

Finish: Short-medium length. More Ribena, dried orange, and marzipan. Flashes of grassy malt in the background, and peach yoghurt in the final moments. 

Score: 2.5 out of 5. 

Notes: A young sherry bomb, and the simplest of the three different expressions. Thanks to that hefty cask influence no doubt. There are still flashes of the creamy & malty notes from the spirit though, so it hasn't been a landslide victory for the sherry casks. This is the softest of the three on the nose, and the sweetest on the palate. I do prefer the extra spirit character in the other two, but I can see sherry-heads liking this one more. 

Overall Notes: Three very different styles of course, there's something for everyone here. I can see sweet-tooths preferring the sherry cask, my personal pick is the ex-bourbon cask, and the ex-STR holds the middle ground between them. The distillery character does show through nicely in the ex-bourbon and ex-STR, and it's not completely overwhelmed in the ex-sherry either. These are young & fresh whiskies of course, very reasonably priced and well worth trying. I'd say the future of Lindores Distillery is going to be bright. The same goes for the rest of the new Fife distilleries, based on what I've tried so far, and for the Lowlands region in general. It's about time!

Cheers!