The wife is away, the housework is done. Its late afternoon and a six flight tasting of Lindores Abbey is laid out before me. I am very excited for these pours. Lindores Abbey is arguably the spiritual home of whisky; with widely recognised links to the earliest written reference to Scotch Whisky. Distilling was taking place on this site at least as early as 1494, although it was most probably happening long before that. In 2017 after 523 years of inactivity at the site the team at Lindores are flowing spirit once more from their copper stills. The modern realisation of Lindores first single malt whisky was released in 2021. But before we get to whisky proper, lets start with the new make. N: Punchy and florally sweet. Sweet cereal, mashed pear. Over repeated nosings a little sickly acetone, but I have probably forced that through excessive nosing. The huge 63.5% is not even suggested. P: Initially soft and velvety, but with a quick following of pleasant(?) tangy alcohol fuzz. Praline and toffee, vanilla and maybe some plum?. Whistle clean, but very short lived flavours. F: Short-medium. Warmth is unsurprising for this ABV, but its a juicy red fruit and maybe the smallest hint of orange-citrus. It is difficult to summarise what this is in the context of a whisky and with only one other new make spirit under my belt (Whipper Snapper Crazy Uncle Moonshine, review #116). However, this is good stuff. Pleasantly crisp, direct, and with a clear identity. The ABV adds an impactful statement on the palate that was not suggested by the nose, and whilst not normally a fan of aggressive heat on the palate this comes across as a lively awakening of the tongue (like a well spiced curry versus insanely hot sauce; ones good, ones a bit silly). No nasty signs of being poorly made and nothing here is unpleasant or off-putting. Anyway a solid start to my run of six Lindores pours and a new top spot holder for new make spirit. Distiller whisky taste #180 [Pictured here with a crystal clear Iceland Spar for a crystal clear new make spirit. Iceland spar is variety of calcite (calcium carbonate) originally noted from Iceland. The cool thing about Iceland spar is its polarisation properties. A ray of unpolarized light passing through the crystal is divided into two rays of perpendicular polarisation directed at different angles. This double refraction causes objects seen through the crystal to appear doubled. It has been speculated that Vikings used Iceland spare light-polarizing property to tell the direction of the sun on cloudy days for navigational purposes] Lindores running scores: New make: 3.25/5