Staging Dram Scotland

Tag: R&B Distillers

Raasay Distillery Coming Next Month

A brand-new distillery will open on Raasay next month, and it’s expected to employ 10% of the Hebridean island’s population!

Isle of Raasay Distillery will be the first whisky distillery on the 14-mile-long island just east of Skye, or, at least, the first one established legally.

R&B Distillers, co-founded by Alasdair Day and Bill Dobbie, are behind the project, having been granted permission by the Highland Council last February and subsequently received grants from Highlands and Islands Enterprise and the Food Processing Marketing and Co-Operation Grants Scheme.

The distillery will be kitted out with two copper pot stills sourced in Tuscany and will have a visitors’ centre next door, not to mention accommodation open to members of R&B’s Na Tùsairean Club, which will open later.

12,000 people are predicted to visit in the distillery’s first year of operation, 100 times the island’s population of 120! Raasay local Norman Gillies will be the Distillery Manager; Iain Robertson (pictured above), a recent Honours graduate of Heriot-Watt University’s Brewing and Distilling course, will be the Distiller; while Master Distiller Chris Anderson will function as an overseer for the first five months.

Sadly though, the first Raasay Scotch will not be available to drink until 2020…

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Distiller sought for remote Raasay

Scotch whisky producer R&B Distillers is on the hunt for a distiller to join one of Scotland’s newest and most remote distilleries on Raasay, an island on the West Coast near Skye.

R&B Distillers, founded by Alasdair Day and Bill Dobbie, is in the process of building a new distillery on Raasay, which has a population of just 120 people.

The company is turning Borodale House, a derelict Victorian hotel on the Isle of Raasay, into a distillery and visitor centre, with production expected to begin as early as this summer.

It will be the island’s first legal distilling facility.

A formal qualification in distilling and practical experience is required for the new role, as is an “enthusiasm for the multifariousness of island life”.

R&B Distillers has already launched several whiskies, including Raasay While We Wait single malt and Borders Highland single grain.

Applications for the distiller position have already been received from around the world, including hopefuls in Africa and Canada, and can be made here. The deadline is 24 February.

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Raasay to get first legal distillery next year

R&B Distillers  (Raasay and Borders) have been granted permission by Highland Council to bring the first legal distillery to Raasay in the Inner Hebrides. R&B, founded by Alasdair Day and Bill Dobbie, currently produces a Borders whisky too.

The plans for Raasay, will see the former Borodale House, also formerly The Isle of Raasay Hotel, converted into a small distillery, and visitor experience centre.

The owners plan to market Raasay as a ‘a leading distiller of niche whiskies’ with batch production and whisky bar selling an extensive range of batch whiskies.”

R&B Distillers hopes to release the first batch of Raasay whisky by 2020 and produce up to 150,000 bottles of whisky a year thereafter. They aim to have the distillery up and running by the end of January 2017.  They haven’t yet revealed where the new Borders  distillery will they put it to a recent consumer vote, and the  resounding vote was for Peebles.

Meanwhile R&B have also released a single malt whisky called ‘While We Wait’. This offers a preview of the calibre and flavour of whisky yet to come. It brings together two expressions from one distillery: one peated, one unpeated. Its newly released Borders whisky is a single grain whisky, lighter and softer in flavour than the smoky peat dram of While We Wait.

 

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