As last month marks the core release of the Isle of Raasay Distillery, the word ‘Na Sia’ comes up. With many being curious about what the word means, Alasdair Day, co-founder of Isle of Raasay Distillery gives us the definition of Na Sia and how it ties in so closely with Isle of Raasay Single Malt Whisky.
WHAT IS NA SIA?
Na Sia means ‘The Six’ in Gaelic. The aim of Isle of Raasay Distillery is all about creating an elegant whisky with complexity, depth and balance leading with light peat and dark fruit. This magic number, ‘Na Sia’, is the essence of our Single Malt Whisky - it represents innovation, creativity, and exquisitivity. Rooted in centuries of illicit distilling, Isle of Raasay Distillery is the first legal distillery on the island. Lightly peated and balanced with rich dark fruit flavours, the flavour profile is inspired by some older style smoky Hebridean single malts. Indeed, Nia Sia summarises the idea of our production method. Our single malt recipe combines six signature casks – maturing peated and unpeated Isle of Raasay spirit separately in ex-Rye Whiskey, virgin Chinkapin oak, and Bordeaux red wine casks. The first of this cask combination in Scotch whisky history.
2 SPIRITS IN 3 DIFFERENT CASKS
Each of the casks has its own character. Freshly charred and toasted, our Chinkapin oak develops a younger spirit faster and camerlises the natural sugars in the wood, creating toffee notes in our whisky. Native to central and eastern North America, Chinkapin oak is a unique inclusion in our signature Isle of Raasay Single Malt that is not commonly used in the Scotch whisky industry. As a virgin cask, our Chinkapin oak cask is very active and we are using this to try to get as much influence from the wood as early as we can.
Stained red on the outside, these high-quality ex-Bordeaux red wine casks give us fruity notes: dried fruits, sultana and grape, Christmas cake, and bread pudding. Since these casks were used to mature red wine, they develop a pink hue in our whisky, giving them a darker red colour.
Our American rye whiskey casks from Kentucky give interesting peppery, spicy, butterscotch flavours to our whisky. Indeed, many people ask me, why do you choose to mature spirits in rye casks? I am impressed how the craft distillers in America took Rye from what was an “old man’s” drink and transformed it into something contemporary and modern for all consumers. Furthermore, I think the black pepper note from the rye casks can give more complexities to the flavour profile of our single malt whisky.
As mentioned, each of the three casks are filled with our carefully distilled peated and unpeated spirits. The reason we marry the peated with the unpeated is to bring forth the smokiness in our core release. The smokiness helps further create more depths and intricacies to our signature single malt whisky.
ART OF DECONSTRUCTING SPIRITS
As we released our single malt whisky to the market, we want to take a step further, allowing whisky fanatics to try out the deconstructed components of our signature spirit. It is an interesting and niche opportunity to explore the different casks that make our single malt whisky special and unique. All 6 casks are now available on Caskshare! Simply select and reserve a bottle from the exclusive Isle of Raasay casks. We will bottle and deliver it to you once it is ready!
