The Isle of Raasay Distillery set up an online ballot for the opportunity to purchase its newly released flagship single malt whisky, attracting 17,478 people by the time the ballot closed yesterday (19 May).
In total, 2,500 people will be given the chance to buy a 70cl bottle of the lightly peated signature Isle of Raasay single malt ahead of its official launch on 4 June, with the ballot results set to be announced today or tomorrow (20-21 May).
Another 500 people will be sent a ticket to a virtual launch event featuring whisky writer Dave Broom, who made the whisky, plus a 70cl bottle of Isle of Raasay Single Malt and a ‘deconstructed dram’ tasting pack of samples from the six cask types that make up the final vatting of the whisky.
The single malt combines peated and unpeated spirit, each matured in first-fill rye whiskey, Chinkapin oak and first-fill Bordeaux red wine casks – all distilled, matured and bottled on Raasay, a small island with a population of 161 lying between the Isle of Skye and Scotland’s West Highland coast.
‘We’ve been taken aback by the hugely positive response from whisky fans right across the world, with 10,000 entering the ballot in the first 24 hours alone,’ said Alasdair Day, Isle of Raasay Distillery co-founder.
‘This launch puts the Isle of Raasay firmly on the whisky map and is a testament to the innovation and hard work of our distillery team.’
Isle of Raasay’s single malt uses water from the island’s Tobar na Ba Bàine – the Well of the Pale Cow – and is bottled with natural colour and non-chill filtered at 46.4% abv.
Later this year, the distillery, which opened in 2017, will release single cask whiskies from each of the single malt’s six ‘recipe’ casks under the banner of the ‘Na Sia Cask Series’ (Na Sia is Gaelic for ‘The Six’).
