Jan. 29: Isle of Raasay's Master Distiller and Co-Founder Alasdair Day...
[UPDATED TO ADD 4 MORE BOTTLES - THE US SINGLE CASK RELEASES]
Fellow Drammers!
We’re excited to announce this special online tasting with the Master Distiller and Co-Founder of Isle of Raasay Distillery, Alasdair Day. The distillery is located in the Northwest of Scotland and was founded in 2014, with the first whisky coming off the still in 2017. That makes this event very timely — with their distillate 5+ years old, they’re able to start releasing more expressions and just this past week announced that they will be imported into the United States by our friends at Impex Beverages. We had the pleasure of sitting down with Alasdair at the Campbeltown Malts Festival in May of this year, where we learned more about what he’s doing at the Isle of Raasay Distillery, as well as a little bit about their upcoming plans to open a 2nd distillery in Campbeltown (if we don’t count the GlenGyle Distillery that is effectively operated by the Springbank team, this new distillery in Campbeltown — the Machrinash Distillery expected to break ground in 2023 — will be the first new distillery in Campbeltown in more than 180 years!
All of this of course makes Alasdair a particularly interesting person to talk to, and we’re happy to say he couldn’t be a nicer, more down-to-earth person. The Isle of Raasay whiskies have been virtually impossible to come by until now, but they just released four limited edition single cask bottlings in the UK, and they’ve also just announced they are being releasing 4 expressions here in the US (being imported to the US through our friends at Impex!). Those US releases (their core range Isle of Raasay Lightly Peated Single Malt, plus 3 single casks) are expected to hit US retail any day now. As we understand it, their standard bearer core range product blends six different cask types together to arrive at their desired profile, and 5 of them are represented here:
UK RELEASE - Unpeated, Ex-Rye Cask, 62.1% abv.
UK RELEASE - Peated, Ex-Rye Cask, 62.3% abv
UK RELEASE - Unpeated, Ex-Chinkapin Cask, 61.9% abv
UK RELEASE - Peated, Ex-Chinkapin Cask, 61.9% abv
US RELEASE - Peated, Ex-Bordeaux Red Wine Cask, 61.7%
US RELEASE - Peated, Ex-Chikapin Cask, 62.1% abv
US RELEASE - Peated, Ex-Rye Cask, 62.4% abv
US RELEASE - Core Range Isle of Raasay Hebridean Single Malt Scotch Whisky, Lightly Peated 46.4% abv
If you’re wondering, the other cask type that goes into their usual blend is the unpeated ex-bordeaux red wine cask. I mean, we’ve got to save something for our next event with them, right? :)
We hope you can join us! The event will start at 20:00 in Scotland (for those in the US, that is Noon Pacific / 3pm Eastern).
ZOOM LINK / Meeting ID: 845 4277 3599 / Passcode: 112922