The Isle of Raasay sits between Skye and the Scottish mainland, a small island with a population of around 160 people and, since 2017, its own distillery. Founded by Alasdair Day — whose family connection to whisky stretches back to his great-great-grandfather, a nineteenth-century master blender — the distillery produces both peated and unpeated spirit, which it matures in an unusually diverse range of cask types. The core single malt marries these different spirit and cask styles into a complex, layered whisky.
The diversity of cask types is Raasay's most distinctive feature. While most young distilleries rely on bourbon and sherry, Raasay uses rye whiskey casks, Bordeaux red wine barriques, and American chinkapin oak alongside the conventional options. This adventurous approach to wood gives the whisky a complexity that its youth alone would not support. At 46.4% and non-chill-filtered, it is presented honestly.
Raasay is still a very young distillery, and the whisky reflects that — there is a brightness and energy here that time will mellow into something deeper and more integrated. But the ambition is clear, and the quality of both distillation and cask selection suggests that Raasay will produce excellent whisky as its stocks mature. For now, the single malt is a genuinely interesting dram from one of Scotland's most remote and atmospheric new distilleries. Worth seeking out for the island character alone.
