Review #749 - SMWS 162.4 'From the Shoreline...' - Isle of Raasay 5 Year

Written By Me, My Wife & Whisky

As more of the new distilleries in Scotland have been around long enough to produce mature spirit, the Scotch Malt Whisky Society has been adding new codes to their registry and bottling single malt from them. Here, we have one of the earliest casks released from distillery code 162: Isle of Raasay, an island distillery that falls under the SWA's 'Highland' region.

This single cask was distilled back in 2019 and bottled in either late 2024 or early 2025; it spent its 5 years maturing in a new Chinkapin oak cask, the same unique cask type that Isle of Raasay uses on some of its official bottlings. After those 5 years of aging, the cask strength still sits at a hefty 61.3% ABV.

SMWS 162.4 'From the Shoreline...' - Isle of Raasay 5 Year

Scotland/Highland - Single Malt

Price: USD 130 (2025)

Age Statement: 5 Years

Strength: 61.3% ABV

Cask Makeup: New Chinkapin oak cask

Details: Not chill filtered, no color added; distilled October 4, 2019; 261 bottles

Tasting Methodology: Reviewed 3 times over 3 months; bottles at 90%, 70%, and 60% fill levels at times of review. Tasted in a nosing glass each time, rested 15+ minutes

Nose: Oaky and a bit spirity, with some reddish fruits like sugar-dusted cranberry. Tons of chocolatey malt comes next, and we get lighter scents of vanilla, lemongrass, linen, and floral notes. Olive oil, caramel, wood smoke, and oatmeal were accents across our sessions - varied and interesting, overall.

Palate: A medium-thick mouthfeel, a bit hot and spicy, with strong drying oak, tannins, and baking spices like cardamom and brown sugar. A strong fruity side develops: berries of blueberry, raspberry, and blackberry, but also lighter fruits of apple, pear, and white stone fruit. Lemon-lime soda, mineral flavors, and some pecans arrive as well; at the end, it's Ovaltine chocolate malt mix and orange rind.

Finish: Warming and spicy, super malty, with vanilla, leather, cinnamon, and buttercream frosting as accents. Softer flavors like honeydew melon, salt, milk chocolate, and wood smoke linger in the aftertaste; it's also very spirity and young, a bit fiery.

Final Note: Surprisingly fruity, especially in the palate. There are definitely some youthful spirit notes in this whisky, which you would expect for the age, but the oak influence is also relatively strong due to that use of new oak - some tannins, a decent amount of vanilla and chocolate that you get from American oak. Quite a bold whisky, a bit unpolished, but no one can say this one lacks flavor.

Value is okay, a bit below average, even for SMWS standards. If we're ignoring the age of the whisky, we still think this is a bit pricey for the flavor you get - this isn't quite refined or polished yet, but the price is still in excess of $100.

Our Rating: 7.0 / 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: 5.53

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.

Me, My Wife & Whisky
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Review #748 - Isle of Raasay Na Sia Single Cask - Unpeated Chinkapin Cask