Appearance

Yellow gold/old gold. Some viscosity – medium heavy. Bright in the glass.

Nose

Apples – particularly cooked apples – baked Bramley’s. Peat and a hint of sulphur. Honey. There is a freshness about the nose that invites you to take a sip. Hints of spice – nutmeg perhaps – definitely cloves: allspice maybe? And again the baked apples.

A flor aroma – almost that of a fino sherry. And then some nuttiness – an oily nuttiness – walnuts? And cereal notes – not barley but uncooked porridge oats.

There appears to be a lack of citrus until the hint of bitter orange peel creeps in – Seville oranges. Some leather and fresh tobacco. And a curious hint of custard but not obviously vanilla – more the sugary element.

The sherry cask might hint at dried vine fruits but none were forthcoming however this is Amontillado so drier, nuttier aromas might be expected. There were some but not abundant.

Palate

A bit of a burn at first but not unpleasant (it is over 50% after all). Some found it sweet initially but all felt it to be creamy, almost cloying. Hints of beeswax. Certainly some pepper and spice and a touch of salinity.

Initially there was no obvious fruitiness or acidity leaving a claggy sense in the mouth. Over time there were hints of lemon peel but not striking. And a little caraway – from the rye perhaps? Smooth but a little at odds with itself.

Finish

Here lies the acidity and citrus notes. Not a lengthy finish – moderate with ashiness but overshadowing it all the cloying feel that dairy products often leave.

Adding a little water brings out some citrus on the nose and the spiciness becomes accentuated. Now there is some orange and custard but the baked apple becomes muted – never a full plateful of crumble and trimmings!

On the palate the dram becomes creamier and the ash becomes more present. There is an added harshness which is not unpleasant at the top back of the palate.

Our scores – out of 10

Two gave this bottling 5 and two gave it 5.5 – total 5.25.

Overall this was a disappointing whisky: not a bad one indeed, better than average, but not delivering what we had expected from Raasay. We wondered whether the rye and Amontillado were competing with each other rather than complementing.

A couple of us were not put off by the cloying nature of this dram, in fact one positively liked it. But the other couple found it off-putting and one, while finding the drink quite enjoyable while in the process of mouthing and swallowing, found that the sweet and claggy aftertaste detracted from making the whole experience an enjoyable one.

Would we rush to buy another bottle? I think not. And would we be eager to have another glass? Probably not. The remnants may well go into cocktails.