Raasay Na Sia Single Cask Series 5 Years Old 2019 (60.3%)

An Isle of Raasay distillery bottling from the Na Sia Single Cask Series, a 5 year old distilled in 2019, from cask 19/437 and bottled at 60.3%. 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. A red wine cask lent blackberry, plum and a wine stained colour. By this age the wood and the berry fruit knit into a deeper malt. A short but intense maturation suits the fruit forward Raasay character. The distillery opened in 2017 and poured its first single malt in 2020. Raasay is a small island in the Inner Hebrides, just east of Skye. The six cask recipe of rye, Chinquapin oak and Bordeaux wine is unique in Scotch.

At a hearty 60.3% it carries real punch. The wine cask adds blackberry, plum and a red berry lift. A dark berry fruit and a baking spice give it real lift. A warming, fruit forward finish lingers. This is a bold young malt from Scotland's newest island distillery.