R&B Distillers Debuts Lightly Peated Single Malt Whisky

R&B Distillers is one of the wave of craft whisky distilleries out of Scotland that’s either still under construction or too young yet to have product in bottle that’s can legally be called a single malt. R&B, falling into the former, is under construction on the remote Isle of Raasay, off the east coast of Skye.

While they wait for this to be completed and their first in-house whisky, they’ve gone ahead and sourced whisky from another distillery to release the second batch of the aptly named Raasay While We Wait.

Raasay While We Wait, according to the distillers, is the result of blending heavily peated single malt with an unpeated single malt from an unnamed Highland distiller.

As was the case with the first batch of this whisky, it was then finished in ex-Super Tuscan red wine casks (Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc). The big difference between the two batches is in finishing time – whereas batch 1 was just eight weeks, batch 2 was a much longer 18 months.

“The second release of Raasay While We Wait has quite a bit of the smoke and earthy notes from the first release but these have been enriched with fruity, juicy, full bodied red wine notes,” said Raasay brand ambassador Chris Hoban in a prepared statement. “Where the wine notes were more prominent on the nose in the first release, with just small amounts on the palate, the second release is enveloped with plum and raisin notes, mixed in with burning peat and dark chocolate.”

Plans currently call for Raasay While We Wait, Second Edition, to have a limited run of just 1,974 bottles, with that number being equal to the year “Raasay resident Calum Macleod completed a mammoth ten-year endeavour: to build a hand-constructed road across Raasay, from Brochel Castle to Arnish.” It will price for around £57, or about $72 USD.