Review #476 - Isle of Raasay Lightly Peated Hebridean Single Malt
Raasay distillery, established in 2017, is located on a relatively remote Scottish isle of the same name. This distillery is aiming to create complex, characterful single malts, generally containing lightly peated spirit and some dark fruit notes. In order to accomplish this, they use some peated malt and some unpeated malt, as well as a combination of cask styles.
Isle of Raasay refers to their maturation combination as 'Na Sia,' which translates to 'The Six' - this is due to the number of styles used for their flagship releases. The spirit is split roughly 50/50 in terms of peat usage vs a lack of peat; afterward, they split both styles into 3 cask types: ex-rye casks, ex-Bordeaux red wine casks, and Chinquapin oak casks. It's actually possible to taste these six individual styles via Raasay's Na Sia single cask series.
After in-house blending of these six styles, the result is a whisky with a theoretical peat level of 10-12 ppm in the bottle; because of the cask types, we could also see a mix of spice and sweet fruit to balance out that smoke. They bottle the single malt at 46.4% ABV, and there's no chill filtration or added coloring to worry about.
Isle of Raasay Lightly Peated Hebridean Single Malt
Scotland/Highland - Single Malt
Current Locally Available Price: USD 79 (2025)
Age Statement: NAS
Strength: 46.4% ABV
Cask Makeup: Ex-rye, Chinquapin oak, and ex-Bordeaux red wine casks
Details: Not chill filtered, no color added
Tasting Methodology: Reviewed 2 times over 11 months; bottles at 70% and 50% fill levels at times of review. Tasted in a Glencairn glass each time, rested 10-15 minutes
Nose: Somewhat light and sweet, but nice complexity: mild peat smoke, some floral character, sweet baking notes of vanilla and honey, and warm biscuits with butter. Fruit it subtle at first, but blackcurrant and orchard fruits develop; there's also a nice peppery spice note.
Palate: More peat and spice on the palate, but there's some interesting fizzy fruit, too - lime sherbet. Vanilla adds a bit of sweetness, but it's almost covered by stronger black pepper, eucalyptus, mineral water, and some fresh oak. The texture is nice and oily; it's a medium thickness mouthfeel.
Finish: Medium length, and there's a nice subtle fizzy peat lingering for a while. Dry purple fruit and also peaches adds some fruit, and we get a bit of peppery spice again; in the aftertaste, it's lavender and linen.
Final Note: There's good complexity here, especially for such young spirit - the mix of peated and unpeated malt, as well as the variety of casks seems to be working. Nice fruit, interesting herbs, a nice subtle smoky side... there's enough here to spend some time digging into.
Value is okay - some of these NAS single malts from newer distilleries can be a little bit expensive, especially once they make their way over to the US. This could be worth picking up to try a new distillery, and we're excited to see where Raasay goes in the next several years, too.
Our Average Rating: 6.8 / 10
In the current whisky landscape of increasing prices and variable quality, we've added a value rating to our reviews that relates to the score and the available pricing of each whisky. This roughly equates to a 0-10 scale; no reviews so far have exceeded a score of 10, although it is technically possible for the formula to produce a value rating higher than 10 with a high enough score and low enough price.
Value Rating: 6.29
About Us: We're a husband and wife review team living in the Midwest United States. Generally, our reviews and tasting notes will be a compilation of both of our experiences with a whisky over several tasting sessions.
Check out our other Isle of Raasay reviews:
Review #190 - Isle of Raasay Na Sia Single Cask - Peated Ex-Bordeaux Cask
Review #189 - Isle of Raasay Na Sia Single Cask - Peated Ex-Rye Cask
