Newer Distilleries 10 : Raasay

This is the tenth in an occasional series about newer distilleries, this entry is about the Isle of Raasay Distillery.

Location

The Isle of Raasay Distillery is located here.

History

Founders R&B Distillers bought Borodale House on the Isle of Raasay in 2015, converting it into a distillery, visitor centre and B&B.

They use the water from their own well at the distillery for every stage of production – from fermentation to cask reduction and bottling. It was traditionally called ‘Tobar na Ba Bàine’, meaning the Well of the Pale Cow in English. The water in our well is drawn up through 60 metres of rock, filtering across volcanic rock and through the porous Jurassic sandstone, dissolving a range of minerals in the process.

Production

Raasay have a 1 tonne stainless steel semi lauter mash tun.

Photo: Callum Gillies

Six stainless steel washbacks each hold around 5,000 litres.

Italian company Frilli built wash (5,000 litre) and spirit (3,600 litre) straight swan neck stills with inclined lyne arms and shell and tube condensers produce a new make of around 70% ABV which is reduced to 63.5% ready to fill the casks.

Mineral-rich Raasay water and long fermentations of up to 118 hours (5 days) develop sweet blackberry characteristics in the spirit before it even touches the cask. Their first casks were filled in October 2017.

Maturation

Raasay have been filling a variety of casks including ex-Bordeaux red wine (French oak), ex-Woodford Reserve rye casks, and virgin Chinquapin oak. 

Photo: Callum Gillies

Their inaugural release used the first two but for their core release Single Malt a mixture of peated (Highland) and unpeated new make has been matured in all three giving what they call their 6 cask story - Na Sia (pronounced “Na Sheea”), meaning ‘The Six’ in Gaelic, represents this unique six cask recipe:

Whisky

Raasay Releases
Release	Distillation	Maturation	ABV
Single Malt R-02	Concerto Barley unpeated and 48-52ppm Residual in Bottle est. 12ppm Distilled : Nov '17 – Feb '18	First fill ex-Rye Whiskey, virgin Chinkapin oak, and first fill Bordeaux red wine Bottled : Aug '21 ongoing	46.4%
Single Malt R-01	Concerto Barley unpeated and 48-52ppm Residual in Bottle est. 6ppm Distilled : Nov '17 – Apr '18	First fill ex-Rye Whiskey, virgin Chinkapin oak, and first fill Bordeaux red wine Bottled : May '21 - Jun '21	46.4%
Inaugural Release		1st fill Tennessee Whiskey and finished in 1st fill Bordeaux red wine casks Bottled : Nov '20	52%

Website
Link to the distillery website


Visit
Open Monday to Saturday 10am - 5pm.

 

Review:

Raasay have recently released their core range single malt:

Distillery notes:

This follows our sold out Inaugural Release 2020 and represents our signature Isle of Raasay style: lightly peated with rich dark fruits.

 

We set out to emulate some older styles of Hebridean single malts, with subtle, fragrant smokiness balanced with dark fruit flavours. 

My thoughts:

Appearance: Rich gold in the glass, swirls cling as a hairline crack (normally a sign  of a really high ABV), take a while to bead up and fall as slow thick legs.

Nose: Huge peat smoke to start - coal fire and embers rather than medicinal or smoky bacon, there a maritime note too - remind me a little of Talisker 10yo. Orchard fruit notes - pear, apple, peach , apricot and some herbal notes - cut grass, oregano. There's some peppery spice and then we're back to the smoke.

Palate: Sweet spicy arrival - starts with the orchard fruit from the nose, along with a little black pepper. The smoke comes through almost immediately dry and ashy. There's a little seaweedy maritime influence and some honey sweetness. A few more sips and the fruit comes to the fore - berries and cherries, some citrus and a little tropical fruit covered in vanilla custard. A really complex dram for it's age - the cask and peated / unpeated combination working well.

Finish: Lingering dry ashy smoke, tropical fruit and peppery spice.

Overall: A really nice whisky! The peated / unpeated and cask combination adding loads of complexity - blind you'd never have guessed it's youth. 

I'd say this is the best 3 year old whisky I've ever tried!

Beautiful packaging with lots of information and an amazing bottle will ensure this disappears off the shelf - finding it in the first place is a problem!