Whisky Magazine – August 2019

Issue 161 | Whisky Magazine 53

Distillery Focus Isle of Raasay

This page from left:

The wash still (left)

and spirit still (right);

Raasay Distillery

founder Alasdair Day

samples some spirit

in the warehouse.

TASTING THE SPIRIT

Peated New Make Spirit Sample

(63.5% ABV)

Fruit forward with pear, honeydew

melon, cucumber, rubber, silage,

penny jar on the nose. Ovaltine,

liquorice, lemon sherbet and subtle

charred green chilli on the palate.

Rye Cask Peated Spirit Sample,

13 Months Old (63.3% ABV)

Coffee creams, white pepper,

barbeque sauce, and butterscotch on

the nose. More coffee creams on the

palate, along with chicory, tamarind,

and cherry sauce. Time in cask has

helped peat influence to emerge.

Red Wine Cask Unpeated Spirit

Sample, 11 Months Old (63% ABV)

Sweet blackcurrant jam, fresh

raspberry, and cherry cola on the

nose. Strawberry laces, sweet malt,

marzipan and poached pear on the

palate. Wine influence is apparent, but

French oak influence subtle thus far.

Chinkapin Cask Peated Spirit Sample,

12 Months Old (62.8% ABV)

Intensely aromatic. Toffee,

sandalwood, fruits of the forest,

prunes in syrup, barbeque beef, pipe

tobacco, and woodsmoke on the nose.

Lots of smoke on the palate along

with stewed plums, dried apricot,

honey, and chicory. A noticably long

and sweet finish.

condensate and returns it to the pot.

Though it has only been activated a

handful of times so far, the Raasay team

have found that using this unusual

piece of kit yields a heavier and more

concentrated spirit – flying in the face

of the conventional wisdom that extra

copper contact equals a lighter spirit.

The idea is that this will be of particular

use for producing heavier peated spirit,

distinct from their usual light and fruity

heavily peated style. Trials are ongoing.

Another area of experimentation

is malt. At the behest of the distillery

team, barley has been grown on Raasay

for the first time in 40 years.

As the climate is unsuited to

cultivation, this initial trial yielded only

enough malt for one third of a mash

but the team are now working with the

University of the Highlands & Islands to

find a variety better suited to the local

environment. They have also conducted

trials with bere, a heritage strain of

six-row barley that delivers markedly

different spirit character when

compared to modern varieties.

Unusually, Alasdair has chosen to

generally avoid traditional cask types

in order to produce whiskies that are

distinct from those being released by

other new players. “We don’t have any

Bourbon barrels, we don’t have any

sherry casks, and we don’t have any

STRs,” he says. Instead, the distillery

has been filling ex rye barrels from

Woodford Reserve, ex Bordeaux red

wine barriques and heavily charred

virgin oak casks made from chinkapin

(Quercus muehlenbergii), a white oak

variety, sometimes known as chestnut

oak, sourced from North America.

“I don’t want to sound arrogant

or pompous, but my view is that

innovation is possible within the

current rules set out for the production

of Scotch whisky. You just have to think

about it. It’s not about just putting spirit

in gimmicky wood for the sake of it.”

Alasdair’s ultimate aim is to create a

diversified stock model that will allow

for the creation of wildly different core

expressions that are blended using

varying proportions of these very

distinct spirits. This model follows

the broad principles of the recipe

for Raasay While We Wait, which he

crafted by blending heavily peated

and unpeated Highland single malt

whiskies from the same distillery before

re-racking the resulting liquid into wine

casks for a finishing period. “It’s not the

easiest way to make Scotch whisky,”

admits Alasdair with a smile. “But this

is what happens when a blender builds

a distillery.”

050-053-Raasay-WM161.indd 53 25/06/2019 11:40