Isle of Raasay, Cask Strength, 2024 Release, Hebridean Single Malt Scotch Whisky (61.3%)

Isle of Raasay Distillery

The Isle of Raasay Distillery is located on the eponymous island in the Inner Hebrides – a rugged, desolate terrain that has historically been home to illicit distilling. It was established in 2014 by Bill Dobbie and Alasdair Day.

Since then, the team have been passionate about crafting artisanal whiskies in the style of a true Hebridean single malt. They have sought to capture flavours that were once commonplace in whiskies:

“When people talk about fruit in whisky, they tend to talk about apples, bananas, pears – those sorts of flavours,” explains Alasdair Day. “But if you go back to the 1970s and ’80s, there was a real blackcurrant character that has almost disappeared and is not that common anymore in whisky. We wanted blackcurrant and those kind of dark fruit flavours, in a lightly peated style.”

We’re looking forward to seeing what this small distillery achieves over the coming years.

Scotch whisky

The styles of Scotch Whisky:

• Malt Whisky is produced only from 100% malted barley.
• Grain Whisky derives from a mixture of cereals (e.g. corn, maize) that may or may not include barley.
• Blended Whisky combines grain and malt whiskies.
• Vatted Malt Whisky (aka Blended Malt) involves the blending of several single malt scotch whiskies from different distilleries.

The traditional regions of Scotch whisky
Lowlands: North of the English border, and south of a line drawn between Greenock in the west, and Dundee in the east, Lowlands produces subtle whiskies of delicate floral, grassy character and little or no peat influence.

Highlands: This is a broad area, lying between Speyside and   with distinct regional variation in the malts produced, ranging from richness and fullness of flavour (Northern Highlands) to sweet, delicate peatiness (Eastern Highlands), to maritime characters (Western Highlands), the clean fruitiness (Perthshire)

Speyside: It encompasses more than half of Scotland's distilleries. Speysides are essentially sweet whiskies, with just a whiff of peatiness, typically highly perfumed, feminine and elegant.

Islay: The peaty soil and Islay's maritime exposure on the west coast of Scotland results in the most robust, oily, heavily-peated, medicinal style of malts.

Campbeltown: At the toe of the Kintyre peninsula, it counts only two active distilleries, Glen Scotia and Springbank. The whiskies share a distinct maritime influence (salty and sewed characters) overlaid with smoky notes

The Scottish Islands: Orkney, Shetland (with Scotland's most northern distillery), Skye, Mull, Jura and Arran typically produce robust malts, at various degrees of peat and smoke intensity. Some are more akin to Highland malts, others evoke Islay malts.

As well as the whiskies listed below in the BBR website,  the Spirits Room in our London Shop holds further stocks of  rare and premium whiskies, many exclusive to Berry Bros & Rudd.