PBMichiganWolverine
Isle of Raasay Single Malt Inaugural Release
Single Malt — Islands , Scotland
Reviewed
December 22, 2020 (edited April 19, 2021)
Here we go again with another inaugural malt. These things are like IPOs...comes in pre-open with one price, and then starts the opening day with sky high valuations ( yes...Looking at you ABNB).
So, I actually was fortunate to pay only £60 for this when they first offered it 2 years ago. For £60, I was to get the full bottle. For that price, I couldn’t resist but purchase. Unfortunately all 3000 bottles sold out, and are now on secondary for £500+.
So...If I may be allowed to get on my soapbox for a few sentences —-
Folks—-what the hell are doing? £500 for a 3 yr old, just so one can say “I bought a first one “????? Why are we driving up prices for these 3 yr olds when when for that type of money, you can get a damn freakin good 30yr old?!?! It’s us driving it up...not the distillers...us, the consumers. These are highly illiquid ( here in the US ), and it makes no sense to collect as “investment”. We need to stop driving up prices for newbie malts just because it has a “inaugural” label.
Anyway...off my soapbox. So...on to the tasting:
First is the bottle design. I love the depiction of the isle seaside. Liquid color is just as eye-catching. The red wine influence shows up in that color. It’s lightly peated, so getting a gentle smoke aroma with berries. Taste—-apricots, gentle smoke, cherries. A fruity lightly smoked dram. Very nicely done, and a great start for this youngling.
If you can find a pour for a reasonable price, it’s worth a try. But makes no sense to pay the secondary astronomical prices.
65.0
USD
per
Bottle
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@PBMichiganWolverine Secondary market prices range from 270-500 € on Whiskybase.
@Slainte-Mhath drinks much older than its 3 yrs. Out of curiosity, what are the secondary on these ?
@PBMichiganWolverine I was really impressed with this release, very decent for such a young malt. And yes, secondary market prices are ridiculous.
@Scott_E i think the craft small ones are not making less just to drive up demand. But the big boys surely are. I also think the newbies aren’t—-they probably don’t have the capacity invested yet. But who knows...i
@PBMichiganWolverine with you brother. There is more show than tell these days. To play devils advocate, could distillers be purposefully creating smaller yields to drive prices upward as well as create demand? Just sayin’...
@ContemplativeFox case and point—-look at the single casks bottles of Daftmill, especially the oloroso ones ( which have less favorable reviews than the bourbon ones)—-silly £700-800 !!! For a 12yr old? At that price, you can get a 30yr old single cask vintage labeled GlenDronach...in oloroso, PX, or whatever
Preach it! It's lunacy that rare bottles of whisk(e)y are rising in price something like 15% per year and we're now sky-high prices for inaugural bottles based on these assumptions about whisk(e)y increasing in price as a collectable/investment.
@Jan-Case no, never had any Raasay previously. Strangely, I received an email 2 years ago asking if I was interested as an early buyer. I figured the worst that can happen is I’ll lose the £60.
Lucky you. I was a bid too late to get the affordable preorders. Did you have the Raasay While We Wait bottling previously? I would like to know how it compares to that one. I really liked that gateway bottle and already have a second bottle on my shelf.