Origin: Isle of Jura (Scotland)
Type: Single Cask Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Strength: 50.5%ABV
Ageing cask: Ex-Bourbon Hogshead Refill
Chillfiltered: No
Added coloring: No
Owner: Hunter Laing & Company
Average price: € 200.00
Official website: hunterlaing.com
Vote: 80/100
So far the Jura whiskies I’ve tried (three, one of which is the same bottling in two versions) haven’t been exactly thrilling, and in general it’s a distillery that doesn’t gather much approval among enthusiasts.
Having the opportunity, thanks to the immense kindness of Fabio Ermoli, to try a single cask version from an independent bottler, I can try to understand if the problem is in the distillate itself or in the way it’s treated during ageing.
Distilled in 1991 and bottled in 2015, it produced 181 cask strength bottles.
Tasting notes
Light gold in the glass.
Green apples and lime emerge first on the nose, grafted onto a fresh, herbaceous background with a slight acidic edge. Tropical fruit (pineapple, unripe kiwi), almonds, vanilla, honey. Delicate but not lacking in personality.
More lively on the palate, with the alcohol level knocking to be heard, it maintains that acidic tone of the nose that punctuates the herbaceous and dry aromas, always accompanied by unripe fruit (apple, above all), almonds, vanilla, brushstrokes of citrus (orange and grapefruit), a vague caress of wood and cereals. Almost like a soft drink.
The finish is medium-long, dry and bitterish, of citrus, wood and almonds.
I have an idea that perhaps it’s I who have a problem with Jura, because even this independent version doesn’t hit my cords: the acidic tones are too pronounced and lash out at an otherwise delicate balance, leaving the pleasure of drinking it suspended in the middle.
Since I have to give it a rating (which, personally, I would avoid, but that’s the way it is now), I’ll hold back a little because I understand how certain tones that I find unpleasant are, more than ever, a matter of personal taste.