Back to Jura then, in the spirit – that is, and no better timing than Feis Ile which is happening right now , and Jura distillery taking part in it as usual. I’ve written in length about my visit to the Isle of Jura in the past – that magical place which hosts about 188 people and over 6,000 deer, where you have one pub, one hotel, one shop and one distillery, that’s pretty much there is on the island, apart from the amazing wildlife, and nature. So here we were 50 people from around the world, celebrating the 50th year of the revival of the Jura distillery by tasting 5 of their lovely expressions. Jura is indeed changing in the past few years when it comes to the quality of its whisky. It’s releasing lovely expressions, and having been on the island and tasted some lovely whiskies, I’ve become quite the fan. Actually this time the samples for the tweet tasting arrived in time, but it seems DHL’s handling of samples was far from perfect, and I’ve lost two lovely samples on the way (I was not the only one this time). It’s always sad when whisky spills or breaks in transit, but i was fortunate enough to have tasted the two which came smashed (Turas Mara, and the 1977) in recent weeks/months, so at least i was not missing on expression I’ve yet to try.Nonetheless, DHL, you suck, make sure not to treat packages that way and as a friend put it : play football with the packages.
We started with the Turas mara, then moved to the 30 year old, followed by 1977, Delme Evans and finished with the awesome 39 3/4. You can find the ones I’ve samples before in the archives, so I shall continue with the ones I have yet to try.
Jura Delme Evans, 1988, 59.98% ABV, out of stock
This one was bottled from cask 1796 distillled in 198 (re-racked from American oak into a sherry cask)in honor of William Delme Evans, a former distillery manager who designed the new Isle of Jura distillery in 1958. Originally 68.4% ABV bottled at 59.98% ABV.
Nose : Big wine! wine gums with some rubber, apricots, spiced honey drink , plum marmalade. quite a bit of sulphur, but hey, i like that! some water does open it up and we get more Oloroso sherry.
Palate: thick and spicy marmalade, figs, Oloroso sherry, a bit of bitter coffee grounds , egg yolk, orange and spice, kind of rubbery but in a nice way, i quite like it.
Finish : Rubber, spicy sherry .
Score: 88/100
We than continued to a whisky noone has sampled outside the distillery yet. It’s not 40 yet, so we call it 39 3/4, and it will be bottled next year as a Jura 40. Super!
Jura 39 3/4, to be bottled next year as 40 yo
nose :Amazing stuff going on here, a wee bit of cola, polished wood with some dry sherry, and quite some balsamic vinegar. Add a few tropical notes as well and a hint of sea brine, and a lovely nutty touch too.
Palate: Rich and spicy-sweet with more sweet sherry notes than on the nose, jammy sweet, thick and rewarding. prunes, and some ripe orange too. I think i may be in love.
Finish : Long sweet and some spice
This is a wonderful dram, and is going to be amazing when bottled, alas, i fear the pricing will be very high, and out of touch for most mere mortals, this is why i am even happier to have been able to sample this one, many thanks guys! what a treat.
Score: 92/100
50 people on twitter tweeting at the same time about the same whiskies, It was a ball! a bit hard to read everything everyone was typing so fast (at one stage my twitter quota for the day was exhusted, so I had to use my other account). Epic tasting, very high quality, and sheer fun.
Many thanks to the Jura distillery for organizing an event on such scale and posting samples to 50 people! and of course, thanks to Steve, of the W.Wire, for making this happen.
Slainte!