THE HOLY SPIRIT
TRIBUTE TO MONKS WHO INTRODUCED US TO WHISKY Abbey distilled Scotch in 1494
Whisky chiefs from the “spiritual home of Scotch” have paid tribute to the monks who introduced the national drink in a Scots abbey over 500 years ago.
Lindores Abbey, founded near Newburgh in Fife in 1191, is where the first written record of Scotch whisky distillation took place in 1494.
King James IV commissioned Friar John Cor, a Tironensian monk at Lindores, to turn “eight bols of malt” into aqua vitae, as it was then known.
Lindores Abbey Distillery, which restar ted whisky production in 2017, has now bottled three casks of Lowland s ing le ma l t Scot ch in celebration of its historic links to the Tironensian order and l ’Abbaye de Tiron, its “mother abbey” in France.
The virgin oak casks were ma de f rom wood f rom forests surrounding Thiron-Gardais, south of Paris, and bottles wi l l be made available exclusively for the French market.
Drew McKenzie Smith, the founder and mana g ing director of Lindores Abbey Disti llery, travelled to the medieval French abbey last week.
He said: “Thiron- Gardais is home to Thiron Abbey, the mother abbey of all Tironensian abbeys including Arbroath, Kelso and, of course, Lindores. If Thiron abbey hadn’t been built, the Tironensian order would not have existed, Lindores wouldn’t have been built and Scotland wouldn’t have whisky.
“Friar John Cor was a Tironensian monk of Lindores and it is he who was famously ordered in 1494 to make aqua vitae for the king.
“We went over to plant a ceremonial oak tree in recognition of the 831 years of historic friendship between Lindores and Thiron but we have also arranged for 50 more oak trees to be planted around Thiron to replace the wood we used from their forests to make the whisky casks.” Lindores Abbey was founded in 1191 by David Earl of Huntingdon on land overlooking the River Tay given to him by his brother King William I.
The abbey came to an end during the Scottish Reformation in 1559 when a rabble “overthrew the altars, broke statues, burned the books and vestments and made them cast aside their monkish habits”.
McKenzie Smith added: “Preservation, both historic and environmental, are of huge significance to us at Lindores.”