Isle of Raasay – An Island Distilled
Discover one of Scotland’s most exciting modern island distilleries through three very different expressions of the Isle of Raasay house style.
For centuries, whisky was made illicitly on Raasay, but it wasn’t until 2017 that legal distillation finally arrived on the island.
Today, the Isle of Raasay Distillery produces whisky with a very clear identity: lightly peated, fruit-driven spirit combined with adventurous cask maturation, all distilled, matured and bottled on the island itself.
This flight takes you through three interpretations of that character.
We begin with The Draam, where six different combinations of spirit and cask come together to create Raasay’s signature whisky.
Then we isolate one of the most important components of that recipe – Chinkapin oak – to see exactly what this unusual American oak contributes.
Finally, we move into the richer world of Dùn Cana, where Raasay spirit meets American rye casks before a second maturation in Pedro Ximénez and Oloroso sherry quarter casks.
Three whiskies. Three approaches to maturation.
One unmistakably Raasay character.
Isle of Raasay Distillery
The Isle of Raasay sits between the Isle of Skye and the Scottish mainland, surrounded by some of the most dramatic scenery in the Inner Hebrides.
Despite a long history of illicit whisky production on the island, Raasay had never possessed a legal distillery.
That began to change when Alasdair Day and Bill Dobbie founded R&B Distillers. By 2015 they had chosen Raasay as the location for their new distillery, and work began to transform the island’s nineteenth-century Borodale House into a distillery, visitor centre and accommodation. (Isle of Raasay Distillery)
On 14 September 2017, spirit flowed from the stills for the first time, marking the first legal whisky distillation in the island's history. (Isle of Raasay Distillery)
From the outset, the idea wasn't simply to build another Scotch whisky distillery.
Raasay was designed around a flavour.
Master Distiller Alasdair Day looked towards older styles of Hebridean whisky – combining smoke with rich, dark fruit – and set about creating a modern interpretation of that style. (Isle of Raasay Distillery)
Everything is produced with a strong emphasis on provenance. The spirit is distilled, matured and bottled on Raasay, allowing the island itself to remain closely connected with the finished whisky. (Isle of Raasay Distillery)
The Raasay Style
There are two particularly important things to understand before tasting these whiskies:
Raasay makes both peated and unpeated spirit.
Rather than simply producing one lightly peated new make, the distillery produces the two styles separately and brings them together later.
The peated malt starts at around 48–52ppm, but once matured and blended with the unpeated component the peat in the finished whiskies is much gentler. (Isle of Raasay Distillery)
This creates smoke that tends to sit around the fruit rather than overpowering it.
The second important element is fermentation.
Raasay uses unusually long fermentations of three and five days, helping develop the blackberry and dark-fruit character the distillery wants before the spirit even enters a cask. (Isle of Raasay Distillery)
Then there is the water.
Rain falling on Dùn Cana, Raasay's highest peak, passes across volcanic rock and through Jurassic sandstone before reaching the distillery's 60-metre well, known as Tobar na Ba Bàine – the Well of the Pale Cow. (Isle of Raasay Distillery)
Throughout this flight, look for a recurring combination of:
Dark Fruit • Gentle Smoke • Pepper • Sweet Spice • Oak
What changes dramatically is how the wood shapes those flavours.
1. Isle of Raasay – The Draam
Hebridean Single Malt Scotch Whisky
46.4% ABV
Natural Colour • Non-Chill Filtered
The Draam is the heart of Raasay.
Originally launched as Isle of Raasay Single Malt in 2021, the distillery officially gave its flagship whisky the name The Draam in 2025. The liquid itself remained the same: Master Distiller Alasdair Day's distinctive six-cask recipe. (Isle of Raasay Distillery)
And that six-cask recipe is where things get interesting.
Raasay produces both peated and unpeated spirit, and each is matured separately in three different types of cask:
First-fill American Rye Whiskey
Fresh Chinkapin Oak
First-fill Bordeaux Red Wine
Two spirit styles multiplied by three cask types gives Raasay its Na Sia – “The Six” – recipe. The six components are ultimately brought together to create the distillery's signature whisky. (Isle of Raasay Distillery)
Each cask contributes something different.
The rye whiskey casks bring spice, vanilla and pepper.
The Bordeaux casks give darker berries and red-fruit character.
And the Chinkapin oak provides rich sweetness, toast, spice and a distinctive smoky-barbecue quality.
The result is much more complex than its relatively young age might suggest.
What to look for
Start with the fruit.
Look for blackberry and dark cherry, rather than the lighter apples and pears associated with many mainland single malts.
Then the smoke appears.
But this isn't a huge medicinal or coastal blast of peat. Think more along the lines of wood smoke or distant bonfire, sitting behind the fruit rather than dominating it.
The casks then begin to reveal themselves.
There's cinnamon-like sweet spice, black pepper and a gentle vanilla sweetness beneath the darker fruit.
The official flavour profile emphasises dark cherries and blackberries alongside wood smoke, cinnamon, black pepper and vanilla. (Isle of Raasay Distillery)
Look out for:
Blackberry • Dark Cherry • Wood Smoke • Cinnamon • Black Pepper • Vanilla
Think about:
Try to separate the different elements.
Can you find the fruit from the wine cask, the spice from the rye and the sweeter, toastier character of the Chinkapin?
You'll meet one of those components again very shortly.
2. Isle of Raasay – The Chinkapin
Hebridean Single Malt Scotch Whisky
50.2% ABV
Natural Colour • Non-Chill Filtered
Our second whisky takes one element from The Draam and puts it firmly under the spotlight.
Chinkapin oak.
Chinkapin – Quercus muehlenbergii – is a North American white oak species, but unlike the much more commonly encountered American white oak Quercus alba, it remains unusual in Scotch whisky maturation.
Raasay has been experimenting with it from the very beginning.
In fact, the distillery describes Chinkapin as something of a “Raasay superpower” and an important component holding together the recipe for The Draam. (Isle of Raasay Distillery)
For The Chinkapin, Raasay has gone much further.
Both peated and unpeated spirit are matured separately in fresh and refill Chinkapin oak barrels before being combined. The whisky is therefore completely matured in Chinkapin oak rather than simply using it as one component of a larger recipe. (Isle of Raasay Distillery)
The barrels themselves are made specifically for Raasay in the United States. The oak is air-dried for 36 months, before the finished casks receive a high toast and heavy char. (Isle of Raasay Distillery)
That treatment creates some very powerful flavours.
And because this whisky follows The Draam, you can now identify exactly what Chinkapin has been contributing to the first glass.
What to look for
The first impression should be noticeably more wood-driven.
There is still Raasay's underlying smoke, but around it comes a rich sweetness reminiscent of maple syrup and caramelised sugar.
Then comes one of the signatures of heavily toasted Chinkapin:
barbecue.
Think charred wood, sweet barbecue glaze and caramelised edges rather than simply peat smoke.
That distinction is worth looking for.
The peat comes from the malt.
The charred, almost barbecue character comes predominantly from the oak.
There is also a flash of bright lime and citrus, which cuts through the heavier wood sweetness and keeps the whisky surprisingly lively.
Finally, savoury spice appears through the finish.
Raasay's own flavour profile places particular emphasis on rich barbecue notes and maple sweetness alongside wood smoke, bright lime and savoury spice. (Isle of Raasay Distillery)
At 50.2%, it also carries noticeably more weight and intensity than The Draam.
Look out for:
Maple Syrup • Charred Oak • Barbecue • Wood Smoke • Bright Lime • Savoury Spice
Think about:
Go back to The Draam after tasting this.
Can you now identify the Chinkapin component more clearly?
That's one of the reasons these two whiskies are fascinating side by side: the second dram effectively lets you deconstruct part of the first.
3. Isle of Raasay – Dùn Cana
Sherry Quarter Cask Hebridean Single Malt Scotch Whisky
52% ABV
Natural Colour • Non-Chill Filtered
We finish at the richest end of the Raasay spectrum.
Dùn Cana takes its name from the distinctive flat-topped mountain that dominates the island and provides an appropriately dramatic name for this fuller, darker expression.
Once again, both peated and unpeated Raasay spirits are involved.
But this time maturation begins in American rye whiskey casks before the whisky receives a second maturation in Pedro Ximénez and Oloroso sherry quarter casks. The current third edition uses an equal split of Oloroso and PX quarter casks. (Isle of Raasay Distillery)
The use of quarter casks is particularly important.
At approximately 125 litres, these are considerably smaller than a traditional 200-litre American barrel, increasing the amount of wood in contact with the whisky.
That means the second maturation can make its presence felt quickly.
The two styles of sherry also perform slightly different jobs.
Pedro Ximénez brings sweetness, richness and dark dried-fruit character.
Oloroso tends towards nuts, spice and drier, more savoury flavours.
Put the two together with Raasay's smoke and rye-cask spice and you get a very different whisky from the first two glasses.
What to look for
Immediately look for dried fruit.
Sultanas and richer raisin-like flavours replace some of the fresh blackberry character found in The Draam.
Then comes sweetness: vanilla and toffee sit beneath the fruit.
But Dùn Cana doesn't become simply sweet.
Roasted nuts bring a drier dimension before the rye-cask influence reappears through white pepper and spice.
There is also an intriguing maritime impression.
A slight saltiness works particularly well alongside the darker flavours, eventually producing something reminiscent of salted dark chocolate.
And then, quietly underneath everything else, comes Raasay's aromatic wood smoke.
The peat hasn't disappeared.
It has simply become another layer within a much richer whisky.
The distillery highlights dried sultanas, vanilla toffee, roasted nuts, white pepper, sea salt and aromatic wood smoke as the key elements of Dùn Cana's character. (Isle of Raasay Distillery)
Look out for:
Sultanas • Dark Dried Fruit • Vanilla Toffee • Roasted Nuts • White Pepper • Sea Salt • Dark Chocolate • Wood Smoke
Think about:
Compare the smoke across all three whiskies.
In The Draam it sits beside dark fruit.
In The Chinkapin it combines with charred oak and barbecue flavours.
In Dùn Cana it becomes wrapped in sherry, nuts, dried fruit and chocolate.
The smoke hasn't necessarily changed.
Everything surrounding it has.
Tasting the Flight
This is really a flight about how Raasay builds flavour.
Start with The Draam and try to understand the complete distillery style:
Dark fruit + spice + sweet oak + gentle smoke.
Then move to The Chinkapin.
Here, one of The Draam's six component casks becomes the star. Look for the jump in maple sweetness, toast, char and barbecue flavours and then try to recognise those same flavours within your first glass.
Finally move to Dùn Cana, where the emphasis changes again.
The brighter fruit becomes darker and more concentrated. Sherry brings sultanas, nuts and toffee, while the smaller quarter casks provide plenty of interaction between spirit and oak. The familiar Raasay smoke remains underneath it all.
The Draam → Balanced, Fruity & Lightly Smoky
The Chinkapin → Sweet, Charred & Barbecue-Led
Dùn Cana → Rich, Sherried & Smoky
Together, the three whiskies tell the story of a very modern distillery with a surprisingly old-fashioned idea at its heart: