Not a terribly long time ago I saw on Raasay’s webshop that they could ship to the US so I put in a preorder for their Inaugural Release and also added a bottle of the whisky they sourced to kind of “demonstrate” what their whisky will be like, as well as get some cash coming in. So, fortunately for me I got this at a normal price and not the wildly absurd flipped prices I saw this going for. Anyway, I figured I do these together to see how well the While We Wait series served as a bit of a “preview” for what was to come.
Isle of Raasay While We Wat Last Orders, Single Malt, 46% ABV
Minutia: Distilled somewhere ang aged for some amount of time prior to a finish in Tuscan red wine casks. Since the Tuscan casks were kind of their thing at the time, I assume that finishing occurred on Raasay. This was from bottle number 5703 of the “Last Orders” line of the While We Wait series, the fifth and final batch prior to a release distilled at the distillery. Enjoyed neat in a glencairn side by side with the Inaugural release.
Color: Russet, Muscat; 1.3.
Nose: Musty, taken over quickly by nuts with a fruity element. Toffee. Earthy and floral. Maybe berry/banana a bit. Vanilla.
Taste: Smoky, vanilla and toffee. Wood.
Finish: Wood, smoky porter/stout, so malt and chocolate. Medium.
This is decent and would be a fine regular product from whoever distilled it. The finish was really nice, reminding me of the finish of certain beers, and as a person who avoids beer most of the time in favor of whisky and cider, it’s a reminder that I do quite like the darker beers like that. Anyway, if this were like the final spirit it’s a good sign, so lets see if it was.
Score: 78
Isle of Raasay Inaugural Release, Island (Raasay) Single Malt, 52% ABV
Minutia: Distilled from 100% Scottish concerto barley malted to >48ppm and matured in ex-Tennessee whiskey casks and finished in ex-Bordeax red wine casks, both 1st fill, for a total maturation time of 3 years. This is from bottle number 7565. Enjoyed neat in a glencairn side by side with While We Wait Last Orders.
Color: Tawny; 1.4.
Nose: A bit like wine, gentle smoke, some sea feeling to it. Earthy and dirty.
Taste: Earthy and fruity with salty smoke lingering underneath.
Finish: Smoke and salty meat pop up after a woody start, and fade into chocolate. Sour fruit after. Medium.
This is a promising start for me. I have a handful of ofther whisky from them for review a bit down the line (a sample of batch R-01 and a bottle of R-02) which follow their formal six-cask type recipe, as well as samples of each specific cask (3 styles of cask, unpeated and peated spirit in each). That will be fun when I have those later this year. With the fact that the nose felt like wine, I have good hopes for the mature spirit as I tend to favor peated spirit that saw a wine cask.
Score: 81
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