Side by side: Raasay Na Sia explored

The Isle of Raasay distillery released their first bottlings in Nov '20 with their core single malt coming out in May '21. This was a marriage of 6 cask types.

Let's try the component parts!

Their core release Single Malt is a marriage of  peated (Highland) and unpeated new make which has been matured in three different cask types: Ex-Woodford Reserve Rye, Chinkapin Oak & Bordeaux Red Wine.

Photo: Callum Gillies

It's what they call their 6 cask story - Na Sia (pronounced “Na Sheea”), meaning ‘The Six’ in Gaelic:

As well as their core release Isle of Raasay have started releasing these individual components:

Rye: These American ex-Rye Whiskey casks are from Woodford Reserve Distillery, Kentucky, where they use 53% rye in their mash bill.

The flavours emulate history’s original rye whiskeys, with strong peppery, spicy flavours in a sea of fruit and butterscotch.

These casks develop interesting pepper, spice and butter flavours in our single malt scotch whisky.

Chinkapin: Freshly charred and toasted, these custom made Chinkapin, or Quercus Muehlenbergii American white oak casks are a type of oak native to central and eastern North America.

The fresh charring of the cask brings a rich colour and flavour early on in the maturation process, and the high toast caramelises the natural sugars in the wood. Expect sweet toffee and butterscotch on the nose, with vibrant dark fruit flavours and deep, rich colours at a young age.

Bordeaux: Stained red on the outside, these high quality ex-Bordeaux red wine casks are delivered fresh to the island from the châteaux of South West France. In the first few months of maturation, our spirit develops a pink hue in these casks, which turns into a deeper, darker red.

Bold flavours and fruity notes develop in the spirit – including dried fruits, sultana, grape, Christmas cake & bread pudding.

@Caskshare are a relatively new company which buys casks of whisky and sells bottle size part ownerships in the maturing casks. Once the cask has matured and been bottled you will be sent your bottle. Check out their website here!

With special thanks to CaskShare the #RatFans, #WolfPack, #BlindPack, #LadyBoys, #B(el)LENDS, #TheSheds, #RaasayPossie (Call us what you like!) were able to try the 6 individual components. Euan organised a Zoom and took us through the six bottles.

Dram	Rye	Chinquapin	Bordeaux
Characteristics	61% ABV NCF, Natural colour 2019 3yo Single Cask #19/235	61% ABV NCF, Natural colour 2019 3yo Single Cask #19/232	61% ABV NCF, Natural colour 2019 3yo Single Cask #19/415
My thoughts:
Appearance	Light gold in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line and fall as slow thick legs.	Dark gold, almost bronze in the glass, swirls leave a thin line with beads forming an inverted crown which eventually falls as slow oily thin legs.	Mid gold in the glass, swirls leave a thick line in the glass which beads up and falls as slow thick legs.
Nose	Orchard fruit: apples, pears, peaches; sherbet, vanilla and a little spice.	A little closed - marshmallows, oak and a little toffee.	Sweet berries, dried fruit, balsamic vinegar
Palate	Thick oily sweet arrival, sherbet from the nose alongside honey and a peppery spice. The ABV just isn't noticeable - very mouthcoating. A little water increase the dryness and makes the dram drier.	Thick spicy arrival, the ABV is a little more noticeable on this one! all the toffee you can think of - butterscotch, caramel, cinder etc Some berry and plum notes. Gentle spice. YUMMY!	Thick sweet arrival, berries: blueberries, strawberries & raspberries; dried fruit, cola cubes and a little spice. Very dry. Nice!
Finish	Lingering sweetness, dry oak and a peppery spice.	Lingering toffee, dry oak and a little spice.	Long dry sweetness and berries

Dram	Peated Rye	Peated Chinquapin	Peated Bordeaux
Characteristics	61% ABV NCF, Natural colour 2018 3yo Single Cask #18/918	61% ABV NCF, Natural colour 2018 4yo Single Cask #18/26	61% ABV NCF, Natural colour 2018 3yo Single Cask #18/651
My thoughts:
Appearance	Pale gold in the glass, swirls leave a thin line with beads forming an inverted crown which eventually falls as slow thick legs.	Dark gold, almost bronze in the glass, swirls leave a thin line with beads forming an inverted crown which eventually falls as slow thick legs.	Mid gold in the glass, swirls cling as a thick line before falling as slow thick legs.
Nose	A little closed, dry, brown sugar. A little smoke, not as much as the Peated Bordeaux. With water a little tropical fruit.	Gentle smoke: BBQ red meat, herbs, berries and  marshmallows.	Bonfire smoke, a little salt, heather, oak. Much more peat smoke than the previous two.
Palate	Thick sweet arrival, a big hit from the ABV. Brown sugar, orchard fruit, sherbet and a gentle blanket of smoke. With water a little creamy.	Thick fruity arrival, BBQ smoke, grilled meat, berries and toffee. Nice!	Thick fruity arrival, berries, cherries, dark chocolate and a blanket of smoke. No spice. Nice!
Finish	Medium length, fruit, vanilla and gentle smoke.	Lingering berry fruit and gentle smoke.	Long dry smoke with fruit.

WOW! We had a brilliant evening - everyone joining in with tasting notes and thoughts and there was quite a bit of difference of opinion as to the favourite drams!

For me they all stood up as individual drams except maybe the Peated Rye, but of course this isn't what Isle of Raasay is about - they blend the peated & unpeated casks together.

The Chinkapin pair really stood out for me, especially the unpeated, the colour and flavour impact on the spirit after so little time in the cask is amazing - both are ready to be bottled today. CaskShare are waiting until they are 5yo before releasing them.

The Bordeaux Red Wine casks were very good, loads of berries on the unpeated masked a little on the peated. Although I'm assuming the peating level was the same on all three of the peated drams it was far more noticeable on the Bordeaux.

The Rye which forms around 60% of the Isle of Raasay core release was OK, I wouldn't buy individual bottles, the peated one especially wasn't good on it's own - but they were only 3yo.

As a tasting flight of 6 drams they were great - I only drank half of my 60ml samples on the night so have some left to try experimenting with mixes to try are recreate R01 or R02!

Huge thanks to Euan & Nick from CaskShare for suppling the bottles and organising the zoom tasting. Looking forward to doing another one soon!

Wings blended his remaining samples to produce something close to Raasay R01

Billy was away from home and had to settle for the latest in state of the art Polyethylene Tetra hydrate drinking vessels...

Geeky stuff:

Isle of Raasay are releasing their core single malt in batches, R01 in the Spring and R02 in the Autumn. 

I reviewed the 2021 pair here, they use a slightly different ratio of the 6 casks, R02 is slightly peatier.

The 2022 pair will be labelled R01.1 and R02.1, the first of which is out now!