Raasay’s landscape is incredible. Much of the geological history of Scotland is here in one form or another.
Our decanter-like glass bottle captures the island’s rugged natural beauty in all its glory. With Raasay’s fossils and rocks moulded into the glass, holding it is like holding a piece of Raasay in your hands, no matter where you are in the world.
Capturing the Elements
Our design adventure began in January 2020, when the deep winter colours of Raasay’s mòintich/moors provided ample inspiration for our distinctive whisky bottle. The colours you see in our new design evoke Raasay’s precious elements and the rich dark fruit flavours of our signature lightly peated spirit.
The design process was inspired by three key themes – a sense of place, Raasay’s dramatic landscape, and our modern island distillery.
Sense of Place
The name Isle of Raasay represents not only a whisky, but a history, a culture, and a people. The Hebridean Isle of Raasay is rooted in centuries of illicit distilling. Provenance, prowess, and people are at the heart of everything we do. We believe the island provides the ingredients for the perfect dram.
We build flavour from the field, mashing only 100% Scottish barley. We have created some of the first 100% Isle of Raasay spirit with local Raasay barley that’s been malted with Raasay peat.
Once our Raasay spirit is in the cask, it is matured in bonded warehouses in Inverarish, just down the road from the distillery – maximising the influence of our maritime, Hebridean climate on the spirit.
Epitomising this sense of place is the story of ‘Calum’s Road’ (have a read of Roger Hutchinson’s acclaimed book if you haven’t already!). Calum Macleod of Arnish, in the north end of the island, spent 10 years single-handedly building a road to his crofting township of Arnish when the council refused to do so. This unwavering commitment to the prosperity of the island in the face of adversity is summed up beautifully by whisky writer Dave Broom, when he opened the distillery back in 2017: “the people of Raasay don’t just make do, they make better.”
Ratharsair – as the island is known in Gaelic – is engraved on the base of the bottle. No representation of the Isle of Raasay and our first legal uisge-beatha (Gaelic for: water of life/whisky) would be complete without our native Gaelic language.
Landscape
Raasay’s dramatic landscapes and high quality raw materials are another source of inspiration. Our single malt packaging puts the island front and centre, as it is in our spirit.
Falling as rain on Dùn Cana, the island’s highest peak, our water flows across volcanic rock and filters through Jurassic sandstone to our distillery well, Tobar na Ba Bàine (the Well of the Pale Cow). The island’s unique geology influences our water, which in turn, adds minerals crucial to flavour development. From mashing, to cask reduction, and bottling, Raasay water adds character to our spirit at every stage.
State-of-the-Art Island Distillery
While rooted in history, culture, community, and tradition, we are also a modern, state-of-the-art distillery with a commitment to innovation. A fusion of tradition with contemporary thinking, process, and design. That’s the Raasay way.
Our new gold stamp gives quality assurance and the gold foil is inspired by our distillery building. Can you spot the whisky and geological influences in our Raasay stamp of approval?
We are committed to ensuring that all aspects of our whisky are rooted as much as possible in the Isle of Raasay. The launch of our new single malt bottle continues our endeavour to re-establish a Hebridean sensibility, and give a true sense of Raasay’s past, present, and thriving future. We wouldn’t have it any other way.