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Mar

International Women’s Day | ‘The Raasay Lasses’

Casks, Interviews, Raasay, Single Malt, Whisky

Introducing Naomi

We’re excited to kick off our new annual campaign, #TheRaasayLasses as a way to celebrate International Women’s Day, and shine a light on the female members of our team who are so integral to the distillery and mutually form a part of who we are.

Every year on International Women’s Day, the longest standing female member of the team will pick a cask, starting with Naomi, one of our fantastic distillers who has been with us for 5 years almost to the day. We’ll then bottle the chosen cask the following year and release it to our Slàinte Club as an #InternationalWomensDay exclusive.

To kick off the campaign, Naomi has chosen our Peated Chinkapin cask from our ‘Na Sia’ six cask single malt recipe. She loves the vanilla nose and the sweet caramel which complements the peat. There will only be 200 or so bottles available – to gain access, sign up to our Slàinte Club and mark your calendars for 2024!

We also sat down with Naomi and asked her about her all about her journey at the distillery. Read on to get to know her better and discover a day in the life of a distiller at the one and only Isle of Raasay Distillery.

Tell us what led you to working at Raasay Distillery and can you tell us about your role?

I grew up on Raasay and after finishing my degree in Zoology at Uni of Glasgow I decided I wanted to return to my home island which coincided with the opening of Raasay distillery in the autumn of 2017. I very luckily got one of the distillery operator jobs going at the time and I started in the March of 2018. At the time 2 of the 4 distillery operators were female (shout out to Barbara)! I feel very lucky to have been able to get such a good permanent job on my home island, as such jobs were few and far between for many years.

What’s your typical day at work?

My role as one of the distillers consists of running the process of spirit production, from milling the barley, mashing, collecting the wort for fermentation and finally the distillation.

Why did you pick this cask?

I personally love the sweeter vanilla notes that the Chinkapin casks impart to our fairly fruity spirit and contrasts nicely to the peat level.

What’s been the highlight of your time at Raasay Distillery so far?

Working with our nice and ever growing team. Releasing our own delicious gin (would like to note that the recipe was developed by female distiller Fiona Williamson when she was doing her Master’s at Heriot Watt)

What’s your favourite work soundtrack?

Shout out to one of our old co-workers Derek who had the best Spotify playlist! Otherwise I’m mostly a podcast girly.

If you had a magic carpet, where in the world would you go and why?

Probably the stunning Iceland. I’d have to take my mountain loving pa of course.

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Introducing Naomi

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