The style of whisky at Isle of Raasay has been shaped by founder Alasdair Day, who emphasized long fermentation and extensive copper contact. This includes a cooling jacket on the wash still’s lyne arm and an inclined lyne arm on the spirit still, resulting in a clean, fruity character with a hint of smoke from the lightly peated malt. R&B Distillers plans to mature the whisky in a combination of first-fill American oak, European oak, and Tuscan red wine casks, a tribute to the origins of Raasay’s stills.
The distillery’s signature whisky, such as the pre-release Raasay While We Wait, is expected to be a fruity, sweet, and lightly peated malt. However, the distillery’s design allows for flexibility in fermentation and distillation, so a variety of styles can be explored.
Originally, Alasdair Day had planned to build his first distillery in the Scottish Borders, near where his great-grandfather blended whisky in a grocer’s shop, to supply malt for the Tweeddale blend. However, a suggestion from a friend led him and his business partner, Bill Dobbie, to the Hebridean island of Raasay, which had never previously hosted a legal distillery.
In 2015, they secured Borodale House, a former hotel, and transformed it into a distillery, visitor center, and luxury accommodation. The first test mashing and distillation took place in September 2017, with casks being filled in October of the same year.
To bridge the gap before the distillery’s first whisky release in 2020, R&B Distillers created Raasay While We Wait in 2015, a peated Highland single malt that reflects the type of whisky the distillery will eventually produce.
