Cask and Still Magazine | 19 >>>


about Scotland and in the whisky section the name Lindores Abbey jumped out at me. The reason the abbey was mentioned was that historians had unearthed a tiny entry in the Exchequer rolls of 1494, which is the earliest written evidence of Scotch whisky production in Scotland, and it is attributed to Friar John Cor, who was a monk at Lindores Abbey. It was a lightbulb moment. My wife and I ran Glenmorangie House


at the time and had a lot of friends within the company, so we had quite a number of high- level discussions with a view to creating a small distillery. The industry was in a different place then and so the idea got mothballed, but about two years ago I got a phone call out of the blue from Ken Robertson, a friend at Diageo, who had been hugely supportive previously. He said: ‘Drew, what are you doing about Lindores?’ So I thought it’s now or never. Very quickly I managed to get a lot


of vocal support from within the industry and from various bodies, including Business Gateway Fife, who helped me carry out a feasibility study. But before we actually went to the market, we had attracted enough serious interest to narrow it down to a few preferred investors. The negotiations took about a year and a half, but they’re seriously keen on whisky and are in it for absolutely the right reasons. Lindores is too important to go in to partnership with people you don’t feel comfortable with – after all, it’s my family home and a long-term venture. The beauty for us is that we have what remains of Lindores Abbey in the middle of our land – the abbey is a very pretty ruin. It was ‘reformed’ by John Knox and his followers but has an important history regardless of having the USP of being recognised as the ‘Spiritual Home of Scotch Whisky’. We’re having a lot of discussions with Dr Jim Swan, our lead consultant. Jim’s expertise in production and maturation, coupled with stills from Forsyth’s, will enable us to produce a world-class Lowland single malt. Though we’re having lots of fun discussing our core product, we’ve a while to nail that down. We will be using sherry casks


and bourbon casks – we may end up using more sherry than most when we start. They are far more expensive, but we’re unashamedly aiming for a very high-quality single malt made with barley grown in the family fi elds that surround the abbey and distillery, and with water drawn from the ‘holy burn’ and a borehole situated within the original walls of the old abbey. We have an authenticity, provenance and history no-one can match. Before we’ve got whisky for sale, which could be in about six to seven


years, we’re working on product development in conjunction with Heriot- Watt. We have long lists of herbs and fruits that grow at Lindores now and grew here in the fi fteenth century, so we want to bring out a spirit that is authentic, drinkable and will be produced before and alongside the whisky. Tourism is also important to our plans. For hundreds of years Fife has


been the home of golf, but we want to raise Fife’s game and be part of a Fife whisky trail that will draw people to the area. We are lucky to have a very old wooden barn that we hope to have up and running by June so people can come to look at the plans, read about the story and visit the abbey. Cultural tourism such as history, genealogy, whisky and gardens is the biggest growing tourism sector, and we tick all the boxes, but my priority is to be true to my promise to Jim, which is to produce a fantastic single malt worthy of the name Lindores. Tel: 01337 929119; www.thelindoresdistillery.com


Lindores Abbey itself has been in the family for 101 years


Drew McKenzie Smith is custodian of the abbey.


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