Two years ago, Isle of Raasay started ageing its Na Sia single casks in public. The idea was simple and slightly unusual: bottle the same recipe casks every two years and let drinkers taste maturation happening in real time. The first drop landed at Five Years Young. This is the second, and it arrives at Seven Years Evolved.
The distillery has just released two single casks under the Na Sia “Through The Ages” strand, both drawn from ex-Bordeaux red wine casks. One is peated, one is unpeated, and both are hand-bottled at natural cask strength, non-chill filtered, with no added colour. They are available exclusively through Raasay’s UK website.
The key facts
Cask 18/761 is the peated expression at 59.7% ABV, distilled on 13 May 2019, with an outturn of 266 bottles. Cask 19/468 is the unpeated expression at 60.1% ABV, distilled on 5 November 2018, with an outturn of 284 bottles. Both were bottled on 15 July 2026 at the distillery on Raasay, both spent their lives in ex-Bordeaux red wine casks, and both are 70cl.
What “Na Sia” and “Through The Ages” actually mean
Na Sia means “the six” in Scottish Gaelic. It refers to the six foundational casks behind Raasay’s flagship single malt: peated and unpeated spirit, each matured separately in three cask styles, ex-Bordeaux red wine, Chinkapin virgin oak, and ex-American rye. Vat those six components together and you get the core Isle of Raasay single malt. Bottle them individually and you get the Na Sia single cask series, a deconstruction of the recipe.
The “Through The Ages” idea takes that a step further. Rather than releasing these casks once, Raasay is bottling them biennially and letting the age climb: 5, 7, 9, 11 and onward. Each release is a snapshot of the same cask types two years deeper into maturation. For anyone who bought the Five Years Young bottles, this is the follow-up chapter, and it is a genuinely useful way to see what two extra years in an active wine cask does to Hebridean spirit.
The casks: Margaux oak doing the heavy lifting
Raasay sources these casks fresh from châteaux in the Margaux region of Bordeaux. They arrive stained red on the outside, and the spirit picks up a pink hue in the first months that deepens toward ruby over time. The barriques are built from two oak species, Quercus petraea and Quercus robur, which the distillery credits for the savoury spice note, while three previous vintages of Bordeaux red wine leave behind tannin and dark-fruit character.
That is the through-line across both bottles. On the unpeated cask, the distillery says dark fruits and cinnamon take the lead. On the peated cask, the wine tannins and ripe strawberry sit alongside earthy Hebridean smoke and a maritime edge. Two years of extra maturation should have pushed the wood extraction further than the five-year versions, which is the entire point of the series.
The two expressions side by side
Distillery tasting notes (these single casks are new and we have not tasted them yet; notes below are Raasay’s own):
| Information | Peated (Cask 18/761) | Unpeated (Cask 19/468) |
|---|---|---|
| ABV | 59.7% | 60.1% |
| Spirit | Peated | Unpeated |
| Cask type | Ex-Bordeaux red wine | Ex-Bordeaux red wine |
| Barley | Laureate | Concerto |
| Distilled | 13 May 2019 | 5 November 2018 |
| Outturn | 266 bottles | 284 bottles |
| Notes | Ripe strawberries, savoury spice, aromatic wood smoke | Rich cinnamon, dark fruits, savoury spice |
| For whom | Peat drinkers who want wine-cask fruit under Hebridean smoke | Drinkers chasing dark-fruit, spice-led wine-cask maturation |
Shared technical detail: both casks were filled at 63.5% ABV, fermented for three days on Distilamax MW yeast, cut between roughly 75% and 65–67%, and made with water from the distillery’s own 60-metre well on site. Presentation is natural colour and non-chill filtered on both.
Who is Isle of Raasay Distillery?
Raasay is a small island in the Inner Hebrides, sitting just off the east coast of Skye. The distillery, run by R&B Distillers, is the first legal distillery in the island’s history and began production in 2017, with its first flagship single malt arriving in 2020. Reaching a seven-year-old single cask is a meaningful marker for a distillery still this young.
What sets Raasay apart is the recipe. Most Scotch leans heavily on ex-bourbon maturation. Raasay built its house style around six casks instead, combining peated and unpeated spirit across rye, virgin Chinkapin oak, and Bordeaux red wine. The Na Sia series exists to show each of those components on its own, and the Through The Ages strand exists to show them ageing. That transparency is unusual, and it is the strongest reason to pay attention to these bottles.
Price and availability
Both single casks are available exclusively through Raasay’s UK online shop, sold at natural cask strength in 70cl. As single casks, the outturns are strictly limited: 266 peated and 284 unpeated. Raasay ships across the UK and operates a separate EU store for European buyers, which matters for the readers from Europe who cannot order from the UK site directly.
Price: £95.00 each (both the peated and unpeated cask), 70cl, cask strength.
Is it worth chasing?
If you already bought into the Five Years Young Bordeaux casks, this is the obvious next purchase, because the whole value of the series is comparing the same cask type across ages. If you are new to Raasay, the choice comes down to smoke. The peated 18/761 marries wine tannin and strawberry to earthy smoke and salt, which is the more distinctive of the two and the one that shows off what Raasay does that other distilleries do not. The unpeated 19/468 is the pick if you want a dark-fruit, cinnamon-forward wine-cask malt without the peat, closer in spirit to a sherry-style dram but coming from red wine oak instead.
At £95 each, these sit in the same bracket as a lot of well-aged single cask Scotch, and the age is younger than most bottles at that price. What you are paying for is not the years but the cask and the rarity: fresh Margaux oak, natural cask strength, and an outturn of a few hundred bottles apiece. For a Raasay follower or a wine-cask enthusiast that is a fair ask. For a casual buyer looking purely at age-per-pound, it is a lot for a seven-year-old.
Neither is a bottle for someone who wants a gentle introduction to Scotch. Both are cask strength, both wear the wine cask loudly, and single casks at 266 and 284 bottles will not hang around. If the profile appeals, act while the outturn lasts.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Raasay Na Sia 7 Years Evolved Bordeaux release? It is a pair of single cask bottlings from Isle of Raasay Distillery, part of the Na Sia “Through The Ages” series. Both matured seven years in ex-Bordeaux red wine casks: one peated (cask 18/761, 59.7%) and one unpeated (cask 19/468, 60.1%). Both are cask strength, non-chill filtered, natural colour.
What is the difference between the peated and unpeated Bordeaux casks? The peated cask (18/761, 59.7% ABV) uses Laureate barley and carries ripe strawberry, savoury spice and aromatic wood smoke. The unpeated cask (19/468, 60.1% ABV) uses Concerto barley and leads with rich cinnamon, dark fruits and savoury spice. Same cask type and age, different spirit character.
What does Na Sia mean? Na Sia is Scottish Gaelic for “the six.” It refers to the six foundational casks behind Raasay’s flagship single malt: peated and unpeated spirit matured separately in ex-Bordeaux red wine, Chinkapin virgin oak, and ex-American rye. The single cask series bottles each of these six components individually.
How much does the Raasay Na Sia 7 Years Evolved cost? Each single cask costs £95.00 for a 70cl bottle at cask strength, sold exclusively through Raasay’s UK website. As limited single casks, outturns are capped at 266 bottles (peated) and 284 bottles (unpeated), so both will sell out.
Where can I buy the Raasay Na Sia 7 Years Evolved Bordeaux casks? They are available exclusively via the Isle of Raasay Distillery online shop. Raasay ships across the UK and runs a separate EU store for European customers, so buyers in Denmark and the rest of Europe should use the EU storefront rather than the UK site.
What is Isle of Raasay Distillery known for? Raasay is the first legal distillery on the Isle of Raasay, off Skye, producing since 2017. It is known for a six-cask recipe using peated and unpeated spirit across rye, virgin Chinkapin oak and Bordeaux red wine, rather than relying on ex-bourbon. The Na Sia series showcases each of these casks on its own.
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