Scotland
Rock Island
- Smoky
- Maritime
- Sweet
Brand
Rock Island whiskies
Rock Island is a blended malt from Douglas Laing & Co. devoted to the Scottish islands. It blends malts from Islay, Jura, Arran and Orkney to bring together in one bottle the different styles of the islands, from Islay’s smoke and salt to the fruit and honey of the less peated islands. It is part of the house’s series of regional malts, alongside Big Peat and Scallywag.
- Created
- No data
- Owner
- Douglas Laing & Co.
- Origin
- Scotland
- In the catalogue
- 1 whisky
History, style and where to start
Guide to Rock Island
History
Douglas Laing’s series of regional blended malts was born in the 2010s with the idea of portraying each area of Scotland by blending malts from several distilleries. Rock Island was devoted to the islands, a “region” that actually brings together very different styles, from Orkney in the far north to Arran in the south. As with the rest of the series, it is bottled at a decent strength, without chill filtration and with natural colour.
House style
Rock Island is a coastal, balanced whisky: moderate peat smoke, sea salt, honey, stone fruit and some pepper. It is friendlier than a pure Islay but has enough smoke to please those who want it. It is bottled at 46.8% ABV, which gives it good body and a long, briny, smoky finish. It is a good way to understand that “the islands” aren’t a single style but a mosaic of very different distilleries united by the sea.
Flavour profile of its whisky in the catalogue
Where to start
Rock Island is the catalogue’s entry. If you like it, it’s interesting to explore separately the islands that make it up: Highland Park 12 for Orkney, Arran 10 for Arran, Jura 10 for Jura and Caol Ila 12 for Islay. That way you’ll discover what each one brings to the blend. It’s also interesting to compare it with Big Peat, the series’ Islay sibling, more intense in smoke and iodine.
This text was generated and translated by AI and may contain errors.