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After buying a rather cute little box of Jura miniature and sitting down to review them one after another I decided on the order Jura 16 Diurachs’ Own first, then the Jura 10 origin and this little beauty was the last one. My thinking was that I did want to start with a peaty one as it may overpower the other two afterwards. Is there a logic to that? Possibly.
There is no age statement for this unlike the other two it is a blend of different aged whiskies with no minimum age stated which means it could be quite young and I’m a little more suspicious of NAS scotch than I am of, say bourbon, for example. It is labelled as “lightly peated” so should be interesting as the first two I tried were not at all and were very light. I do like a peated whisky.
Jura is a small island off the west coast of Scotland and the Jura distillery is owned by Whyte and Mackay, which is owned by Emperador Inc.
Anyway let’s get down to the good stuff, here is my review of the Jura:
About the Distillery
The Jura distillery is situated off the West Coast of Scotland, in the Inner Hebrides on the Island of Jura. It was originally established in 1810. After some time, it fell into a state of disrepair and was renovated and re-opened in 1884. It remained functional until circa 1900 when it was closed again, this time to be demolished.
It wasn’t until the 1950s that local businessmen Robin Fletcher and Tony Riley-Smith began a venture to rebuild the Jura distillery. The reconstruction was finalised in 1963, and after the installation of some taller stills, the distillery started production, creating various malts.
The island of Jura is home to over 5,000 deer and has a human population of approximately 212. It is a challenging environment with only one road, one pub, and one distillery. It is not the easiest place to produce whiskey. However, the single malt produced on the island is held in high esteem by whiskey connoisseurs all over the world.
Whisky Details
On the bottle:
“The Ankh cross is an ancient Egyptian symbol rumoured to bring good fortune – as long as you pour the whisky correctly by holding the cross in the centre of your palm. Crafted from a selection of the finest aged Jura single malt whiskies, this mysterious spirit has a unique style and character, with tastes of spice, honey, pine and peak with a whisper of smoke.”
Distiller: Jura
Region: Islands
ABV: 43%
Proof: 86
Age: NAS
Tasting Notes
Nose:
Peat and smoke on the old nozzle with some honey, cloves, dark chocolate and citrus.
Taste:
Dark chocolate up front, sweet rose petals and prune juice, with ginger, honey and Crunchy Nut Cornflakes. The smoke on the nose is much more subdued which is surprising.
Finish:
Cinnamon, honey and citrus with a hint of spice.
Summary
Strange one, from the nose you think it is going to be Laphroaig 10 esque but that isn’t how it turns out at all, it’s much sweeter and fruitier like the 10 Origin and the 16 Diurachs’ Own. I like a peaty monster so I was a little disappointed by that but you get things from this that you don’t find in the peatier peateds I’m aware that both those word don’t exist btw!). My girlfriend loved this and she doesn’t like peat monsters but enjoyed the subtle hints that this has.
All said on done, I did enjoy it and would put it a close second to the Jura 16 and way above the 10 which I wasn’t a big fan of.