Isle of Raasay R-02 Single Malt 46.4%

Isle of Raasay R-02 Single Malt 46.4%

R-02 is a lightly peated, fruity single malt from the Isle of Raasay distillery. Made with a blend of peated and unpeated spirits that have been matured in a combination of first-fill ex-rye whiskey casks, virgin Chinkapin oak and first-fill Bordeaux wine casks. The result is notes of dark berries, earthy smoke, subtle sea salt and juicy plums throughout the palate.

About the Distillery:

Isle of Raasay Distillery was founded in 2017 and began operations in September of that year. It was founded by Alasdair Day and his business partner Bill Dobbie, an online dating entrepreneur. Alasdair's great-grandfather Richard was a whiskey blender for J&A Davidson, a merchant in Coldstream, which he would eventually take over in 1923. A ledger of detailed sales and blending recipes was passed down through the Day family over the years, and this inspired Alasdair - who previously worked in food production and marketing – to make inroads into producing whisky, setting up a company called R&B Distillers in 2014 with the aim of opening a distillery on the Isle of Raasay and another in the Borders. While the latter venture has not yet come to fruition.

While their own spirit was still maturing, R&B partnered with a well-known Highland distillery (which shares its name with a well-known body of water and a nearby well-known golf course) to bottle a series of releases called 'While We Wait', which would preview the style of whiskey , which Raasay would eventually produce himself. The focus of While We Wait was on a medium-peated whiskey that was finished in Tuscan red wine casks. But as time progressed, the Raasay team developed the cask composition that would eventually become their first batch.

Raasay Single Malt now uses a six cask recipe; peated and unported spirits are matured in casks that have previously held Woodford Reserve Rye whiskey or those that have aged 3 vintages of Bordeaux red wine. Along with a third portion of spirit that has been matured in virgin Chinkapin oak casks. Chinkapin oak gives a darker fruit flavor than the usual Quercus Alba oak. And the team also experimented with different levels of char and toast with Spirit of Hven vodka to assess the ideal result for their own spirit.