Review #614 - Isle of Raasay Na Sia Single Cask - Peated Ex-Bordeaux Cask
Isle of Raasay's Na Sia single cask series explores the 6 different spirit and cask combinations that are used to make their flagship whisky, a lightly peated single malt. The distillery uses both peated and unpeated spirit, and then they mature those spirits in three types of first fill casks: ex-rye, Bordeaux red wine, and Chinquapin oak. After these spirits are separately matured, the components are blended together into batches for the core release.
This single cask from the Na Sia series uses peated spirit distilled in 2020, and the cask selection is the Bordeaux red wine cask. There's no age statement, but these Na Sia casks are roughly 4 years old at this point, though they'll be getting increasing age statements over time as the distillery has more mature stock. These single casks also come with very potent strength: this example sits at 61.4% ABV after maturation.
Isle of Raasay Na Sia Single Cask - Peated Ex-Bordeaux Cask
Scotland/Highland - Single Malt
Price: USD 114 (2025)
Age Statement: NAS
Strength: 61.4% ABV
Cask Makeup: Ex-Bordeaux red wine cask
Details: Not chill filtered, no color added; distilled 2020; cask 20/234
Tasting Methodology: Reviewed 4 times over 7 months; bottles at 50%, 100% (blind tasting), 90% (blind tasting), and 80% (blind tasting) fill levels at times of review. Tasted in a nosing glass each time, rested 15+ minutes
Nose: Punchy scents: musty, rubbery, lots of peat, some barbecue. This whisky gave us a huge variety of notes, never quite the same - we found fudge, walnuts, blood orange, cranberry sauce, lime, pepper, and honey across our tasting sessions. At times, we found wood char, Swisher Sweets cigarillos, and a dark, inky seaweed, too.
Palate: The mouthfeel is medium-thick - it's very rich and densely flavored. Jammy fruits of cranberry, candied orange, and sweet lemon combine with strong peat and wood smoke. The smoky spirit and cask come together to create savory notes - bacon, even sausage - and then we get a bit of cola or root beer. At the end, it's a bit ashy.
Finish: Wood char, strong peat - very smoky, and that ash from the palate lingers, along with a coal note. Subtle nectarine, orange, and vanilla add a bit of balance; it's a long finish, and we get a hint of malt in the aftertaste.
Final Note: Punchy flavors, a decent amount of depth - this is a very good peaty single malt, one that has more complexity than most other whiskies its age. A good mixture of peat, wood smoke, and fruits, and there's the occasional hint of baking spice to round out the profile; it's quite a strong whisky, too - nothing delicate here.
Value on these single casks from the Na Sia series is okay - they are a bit expensive, at least here in the US, but they do deliver tons of flavor. We also like that this gives us a more intimate look at the process behind a distillery's core range bottling - that isn't something you see every day, and for that reason, it gets some points with us.
Our Average Rating: 7.5 / 10
In the current whisky landscape of increasing prices and variable quality, we've added a value rating to our reviews that relates to the score and the available pricing of each whisky. This roughly equates to a 0-10 scale; no reviews so far have exceeded a score of 10, although it is technically possible for the formula to produce a value rating higher than 10 with a high enough score and low enough price.
Value Rating: 6.19
About Us: We're a husband and wife review team living in the Midwest United States. Generally, our reviews and tasting notes will be a compilation of both of our experiences with a whisky over several tasting sessions.
