Raasay Unpeated Rye Cask (Skotchtoberfest #10)

Finally the beginning of some reviews I’ve been looking forward to for a while. I ordered a pack of the six different types of casks Raasay uses (three cask types, each with peated and unpeated malt) and the next six days will be each of those, followed by the first two batches. Here we go.

Raasay Unpeated Rye Cask, Island (Raasay) Single Malt, 63.5% ABV

Minutia: Distilled from unpeated malt and matured for 27 months in an ex-Woodford Reserve rye cask. Enjoyed neat in a glencairn.

Color: Jonquil, ripe corn; 0.4.

Nose: Dough, toast. Salt/minerality.

Taste: Dough, spicy.

Finish: Cayenne pepper. Chocolate. Short.

Hmm. It’s got a note I get in Kilkerran, specifically the heavily peated expressions, in the form of a dough. But it’s not quite the fried dough I get from Kilkerran. I suppose that means it’s some new makey stuff coming through, but in the Kilkerran’s it does it in a way pleasing to me. This isn’t offensive, but I’m pretty neutral about it. As a stand alone drink, of course; I wouldn’t be interested in a Na Sia bottle of this, at least this early in Raasay’s life. My take is that this is in the blend to add some spice and a chocolatey-malty note in the finish. While the overall finish is short, that lingers, and surprisingly it’s something I associate with some very well aged unpeated drams, so it’s cool to see it in here and if I weren’t already I’d be interested to see what comes through at various ages as Raasay gets older stock as time goes one..

Score: 70