Isle of Raasay Distillery

Isle of Raasay Distillery

In this Q&A, Isle of Raasay Distillery shares a glimpse into their whisky-making process, the history behind their unique collection, and what makes their spirits truly special.

Isle of Raasay Distillery is the first legal distillery on the Isle of Raasay what inspired you to establish a whisky distillery in this unique location?

I can trace my family connection to whisky back to 1820 when a company called J&A Davidson was established in Coldstream in the Scottish Borders. My Great Grandfather joined the business as an office boy when he left school in 1895. I inherited his “cellar book” from my father in 2009 and recreated one of his blended whiskies called The Tweeddale. By 2013 I had written a business plan for a Borders distillery but required investment. In short that’s how I met Bill Dobbie and we incorporated R&B Distillers in July 2014. Bill’s oldest friend from school Iain Hector Ross had suggested that Borodale House (a disused hotel on Raasay) would make a good location for a distillery (Iain’s wife Marion’s family was from Raasay). I visited Raasay with Bill in May 2014 and looking back at the views of Skye had to agree that it was indeed the ideal location for our distillery.

Your focus on both peated and unpeated spirit sets you apart. Can you explain how you approach blending these styles to create a balanced whisky?

As I mentioned I started in the Scotch whisky industry as a blender and approached designing the distillery process and oak policy as a blender. Also when writing my original business plan for a distillery had looked at other distilleries around the world (particularly in Japan) and realised that we could take a different approach to making single malt scotch whisky as we wouldn’t be constrained by having to have one distillery style required my blenders. Also we knew that we wanted to release whisky at a younger age (3, 4, 5 years old). So how do you produce an excellent whisky at a younger age? We in my opinion an excellent whisky has complexity, depth and balance so we had to created complexity and depth and then marry these elements together to create balance. This is why we produce 6 months of heavily peated spirit using malted barley at 52ppm and 6 months of plain malted barley. This creates two separate spirits that are matured separately in three different cask types (ex Rye American oak, chinkapin oak and ex Bordeaux red wine French oak casks). This creates complexity and depth, 6 different components which after full maturation we marry together to create balance.

Small batch production is at the heart of your operation. How does this scale allow you to experiment and innovate with your whisky?

We produce about 3 casks on each shift, 6 casks a day. We fill these casks every day this allows us to trace everything back to just 6 casks. It means that we can identify every element of the production of these; from fermentation time (3 to 5 days), yeast type, wither the cooling jackets on the washbacks were off or on, whither the cooling jacket on the lyne arm of the wash still was on or off, the cut points used, barley variety, level of phenols of the barley, to the type of casks filled. This gives us more options when it comes to planning our special releases and more transparency on the breakdown and information that we can provide to our customers of The Draam our signature Isle of Raasay Hebridean Single Malt.

Sustainability is a growing focus in whisky production. What steps is Isle of Raasay Distillery taking to minimize its environmental impact on the island and beyond?

When we design the distillery we included two heat recovery steps in the process. We recover the heat from the wort as we cool it prior to adding the yeast. This recovered heat preheats the next water for mashing. We also hold our pot ale & spent less and recover the heat from both to preheat the wash going into the wash still. Both heat recovery steps significantly reduce our energy consumption. We are also working on a third heat recovery step which will be used to heat our accommodation and visitor centre this could potentially create a potential further saving of 60 tonnes of carbon per year. We are working with the Community Hydro Scheme (Raasay Renewables) to use the green electricity produced to power a forklift and maturation warehouses on Raasay. We have also created over 40 careers at our distillery on Raasay, an island that had a recorded population of just 161 people in the 2011 census.

Isle of Raasay Distillery is known for its incredible visitor experience. What can guests expect when they come to visit the distillery and the island?

We currently have 6 ensuite bedrooms in the distillery with a bar, restaurant, residents lounge, shop and visitor centre. It’s just a 25 minute ferry from Sconser on Skye to Raasay, an experience some would say adventure with the best views of Skye. When you arrive you can join a tour, enjoy The Draam or a cocktail, relax in front of the log fire in the residents lounge and enjoy our locally sourced food (all with that view). There’s even a complementary bottle of Isle of Raasay single malt waiting for you in your room. We have also started work on 6 additional “bothies” luxury cabins at the distillery that will be available to book from October this year.

If you’d like to learn more about the Isle of Raasay or are interested in purchasing one of their bottles, you can visit their website here 

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