Raasay The Chinkapin

A distillery release of Isle of Raasay, a Batch: C-01.1.1 bottling distilled in 2021 and bottled at 50.2%. The outturn was 10000 bottles. The Isle of Raasay Distillery opened in 2017, the first legal still on an island with a long history of illicit distilling. The distillery is vertically integrated, doing everything on the island from mash to bottle.

It was drawn off a lantern wash still and a straight necked spirit still, following a long ferment that lends the new make a blackberry lift. Virgin and ex-Bourbon American oak drove a bold vanilla and spice here. With no age statement, it shows the bright, fruit driven style of a young island malt. A short but intense maturation suits the fruit forward Raasay character. The six cask recipe of rye, Chinquapin oak and Bordeaux wine is unique in Scotch. Peated and unpeated spirit are matured apart, then married for the flagship malt.

At 50.2%, undiluted, it is rich and vivid. The cask lends vanilla, baking spice and a honeyed sweetness over a gentle wisp of peat. The texture is bright and juicy, the fruit lifted by the cask. A warming, fruit forward finish lingers. This is the first legal single malt of the Isle of Raasay.