Raasay Distillery launches While We Wait 2018

Raasay Distillery has unveiled the latest instalment in its While We Wait series of whiskies, which has been aged in Bourbon barrels and finished in Tuscan wine casks.

The 2018 While We Wait release uses a higher proportion of second-fill Tuscan wine cask-matured spirit

The expression is the fourth release in the While We Wait series, which was created to represent the flavours drinkers can expect from future Raasay Distillery Scotch whiskies – due to be released in 2020.

Designed as a peaty and fruity single malt, each iteration of Raasay While We Wait has been crafted through the vatting of two malts from a single Highland distillery – a heavily peated and an unpeated malt.

While We Wait has been matured in Bourbon barrels and finished in Tuscan Montechiari wine casks. The 2018 release uses a higher proportion of second-fill Tuscan Montechiari wine casks, said to give the whisky a “finer balance between the influence of French oak and smoke”.

The latest whisky in the series is said to have a “smokiness on first nosing, mixed with red berries, lemon, lime and grassy notes”. On the palate, While We Wait 2018 has a “dry peatiness, mixed in with fruity red wine notes and orange zest, while the finish is oaky and buttery”.

Raasay While We Wait 2018 is priced at £53 (US$70) and will be available to purchase online at raasaydistillery.com and through Master of Malt.

Earlier this year, the island distillery unveiled plans to release up to 20 casks of new make spirit for whisky fans to purchase every year.