This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
News
Raasay debuts its oldest single malt to date
London-based Berry Bros & Rudd has released the first single cask bottling from Scotland’s Isle of Raasay Distillery, its oldest whisky to date.
Based on the Hebridean Isle, the Scottish distillery started production in September 2017. The producer bottled the first legal single malt whisky from the Hebridean island in November 2020.
The 2017 Raasay single cask #23 selected for this bottling comes from the distillery’s peated distillate.
After three years in a first-fill ex-Bourbon barrel, the liquid was split for six months into two quarter casks, ex-oloroso and Pedro Ximénez (PX) Sherry, before being vatted back together.
Alasdair Day, co-founder and master distiller at Isle of Raasay, said: “We are delighted with this first-ever independent bottling of our Isle of Raasay single malt. A single cask bottling from the 23rd cask filled at the Isle of Raasay resulting in the oldest whisky bottled to date from the distillery.
“This is a bold, balanced, complex single malt combining ex-Tennessee whiskey barrel maturation with oloroso and PX Sherry finishing.”
The resulting liquid is bottled at 56.1% ABV and offers notes of apricot, Sauternes wine and coastal peat smoke, along with hints of spice, orange syrup and dried fruit.
Jonny McMillan, assistant reserve spirits manager at Berry Bros & Rudd, said: “The last few years has seen a small but meaningful movement by a few Scottish startup distilleries to create interesting and characterful distillate; not jumping on the bandwagon of Scotch whisky’s current global success but pursuing true innovation with local barley varieties or unusual yeast strains – Isle of Raasay is one of these distilleries which is going above and beyond to create a whisky with its own unique identity.”
The 2017 Raasay single cask #23 is available to buy from Berry Bros & Rudd, Master of Malt and The Whisky Exchange, priced at RRP £120 (US$156). Only 240 bottles have been produced.
In November last year, Berry Bros & Rudd released 539 bottles of a 14-year-old single cask Scotch from Royal Brackla Distillery.
In February, the owner of Isle of Raasay Distillery revealed plans to build a sustainable single malt whisky distillery in Campbeltown.