Three hundred and sixty-four days have passed since we were on the small island off the east coast of Skye.
Isle of Raasay The Draam (46.4%, OB, Rye Whiskey Casks + Chikapin Oak Casks + Bordeaux Red Wine Casks, b. ca. 2025): nose: oily bacon rashers, smoked, but uncooked, and thick, petrolic earth. Increasingly petrolic over time, it peddles bitumen, diesel, engine grease, oil paint, greased-up cylinder blocks and ink. The bacon is lurking in the background, with cured beef and smoked ham. It acquires a lot of watercolour with breathing, coating and dusty. Cured and smoked meats remain the centrepiece, though, including game, now (boar, partridge). It promises to be rather salty too. The second nose is more acidic, halfway between freshly-tawed soft leather and a puddle of vomit on the street of a student town in the morning (Leuven. Stella.) A vague fruitiness (fermented plums) appears, hard to find behind the acidic and butyric notes that point more at fermented barley. Mouth: salty! Blue ink and watercolour, salt-crusted chicken, smoked prosciutto (it reads much posher than 'ham', does it not?) Chewing reveals a thick, plasticine-like texture that is soon overrun by parched earth, first caked onto a tractor tyre, now so dry it fell off onto a farm path. There remains watercolour, now augmented with linseed oil. Chewing further gives a fleeting note of smoked kippers; it timidly peeks from time to time and ends up settling for good. The second sip has burnt hay and caramelised straw, smoked granola and smoky plums, fermenting away. It is bold and acidic, but there is no puddle of sick, here, thankfully. Instead, we have souped-up barley juice with a dash of lemon juice added for kicks. Finish: plasticine, smoked plasticine and, inexorably, petrol and oil paint. It is a dollop of dark-green paint (RAL 6020, or Revell reference 32363) doused in petrol or diesel. It coats the palate like a ripe alphonso mango with none of the mango taste. Perhaps it is crude oil instead? Whatever it is, it is thick and coating, while also earthy and bitter. The second gulp welcomes smoked lemons and calamansis, pressed, the juice of which is enhancing smoked granola and half-burnt haybales. Charred, smoked and citric. Retro-nasal olfaction picks up plastic straws or smoked dandelion stems. I prefer the individual components, even if this is not bad. 7/10 (Thanks for the sample, adc)
