Isle of Raasay Distillery

Highland Council granted planning permission in February 2016, and building work began in June 2016.^4,10,11 Local architect Olli Blair designed the distillery around the renovated Borodale House.^4,10,11 In July 2017 R&B named Iain Robertson, a recent Heriot-Watt graduate, as its first distiller.^11,12 Master distiller Chris Anderson was due to join him for the first 5 months to oversee the first distilling.^11,12 Its first runs used Baird's malt peated to 45 peat parts per million, fermented for 110 hours, and the first casks were filled in October 2017.^1,2,3

Its water comes from its own well, Tobar na Ba Bàine, the Well of the Pale Cow, fed by rain that filters through Jurassic sandstone.^2,6,9 It mashes only Scottish barley, and its peated malt, made with Highland peat for a gentle smokiness, is 48-52 peat or phenol parts per million.^6,7 It has 6 stainless steel washbacks, the tanks where wort, sugary water from the mash, ferments into wash.⁴ Each week it runs 4 standard 70-hour fermentations and 6 long 120-hour ones, which the distillery says help create dark fruit flavours.^6,7 It has also used a champagne yeast to help create those dark fruit flavours.^6,7 It has one 5,000-litre wash still and one 3,600-litre spirit still, both copper pot stills from Frilli in Tuscany.^2,4,9 It was expected to make about 200,000 litres of alcohol a year, and R&B planned to double that to about 400,000 litres within three to five years.^2,13 The stills are heated by steam, and shell and tube condensers turn the vapour back into spirit.⁴ The lantern-shaped wash still has a cooling jacket that can send more vapour back into the still on peated runs, to build heavier flavours.^4,7,9 The spirit still has a straight swan neck and a six-plate purifier before the condenser, which can be switched on to concentrate fruity flavours from unpeated runs.^4,7,9 The distillery says its water, long fermentations and distilling process give the new spirit sweet dark fruit character.⁶

In 2017 a first barley trial on a borrowed croft field tested 5 varieties, and IsKria, Kannas and Bere ripened.⁷ That barley was malted with Raasay peat and distilled in 2018, and later trials of IsKria and Brage were distilled in 2019 and 2021.⁷ In October 2019 two new warehouses were finished so that all of its spirit could keep maturing on Raasay.^6,9,14 One is a traditional warehouse and the other holds casks on pallets.^6,9,14 In November 2019 R&B Distillers secured up to £200,000 from Highlands and Islands Enterprise for new bottling facilities and more warehousing on the island.¹⁵

Sources

16 sources. Something wrong? Report it from the menu at the top of the page.