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Isle of Jura Superstition

NAS and a fancy Ankh

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@FrostReview by @Frost

25th Jul 2014

0

Isle of Jura Superstition
  • Nose
    21
  • Taste
    21
  • Finish
    21
  • Balance
    20
  • Overall
    83

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Distribution of ratings for this: brand user

Jura is a unique beast. The nose and taste - you can pick it straight away. And this is something that has earned this malt many fans and detractors.

Nose: Unmistakable Jura. Honey, vanilla, brown sugar, dark chocolate, oily, oranges.

Taste: Honey, toffee, grassy, salty, subdued peat.

Finish: Dry, toffee, bitter honeycomb in the mid-finish then peat surfaces at the back of the tongue dominating the finish.

A pleasant dram and certainly enjoyable. I wouldn’t suggest it as an introduction to peat for the uninitiated. I feel the nose and after taste can be conflating to each other. Once I adapted to it, I really enjoyed this contrast.

By the time I finished the bottle it had been open for seven weeks. I really wish I'd finished it within the first four weeks. Certainly anything distinct or of character is now a faded memory. What remains is subdued, having lost what makes it a Jura, and by no coincidence my mind is instantly drawn to Dalmore... but a flat Dalmore.

Epilogue - I like the shape of this bottle and the print directly made on the glass during manufacturing. When I first broadened my exploration of whisky to branch out into expressions I’d never tried the bottles by Jura and Dalmore stood out on the shelf. In hindsight I realise they caught my eye for the wrong reason. I suspect this packaging has been over developed by a marketing team. I can envision a bunch of guys with pony tails sitting around a table knocking back Pepsi Max when they came up with the use of the Ankh on this bottle. A lot of back hand shaking and wine bottles popped to celebrate a contract fulfilled (note: they didn't celebrate with whisky). What relevance does the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic for "life" have to do with whisky?

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4 comments

@Victor
Victor commented

@Frost, thanks for your nice review. Four weeks is very fast for a bottle to lose its mojo.

Your descriptions of bitter (honeycomb) and toffee make me think of Mr. Paterson unapolagetically adding his large dollops of caramel to the whisky. Apparently he still thinks that that is a great idea.

So far I haven't tasted any Jura which was an unalloyed pleasure. Some day, maybe.

'Pony tails' and 'Pepsi Max'-- that's funny!

10 years ago 0

@Frost
Frost commented

@Victor Thank you for the feedback. I feel a bit the same, I am always hopeful when I open a bottle of Jura and await the time I am blown away.

I hope he isn't adding that much caramel, but tasting notes on Connosr for various Jura & Dalmore expressions would suggest otherwise, right? This is speculation, but I wouldn't be surprised that if the whisky industry relaxed it's standards he'd bottle his creations at 35% (yeeeeech)

Damn...that should read "I feel the nose and after taste can be conflicting to each other."

If I had to rate the mojo-less version it'd be : Nose: 18 Taste: 19 Finish: 17 Balance: 18

10 years ago 0

@Ol_Jas
Ol_Jas commented

I can't believe you resisted the temptation to subtitle this review "Ponytails and Pepsi Max." ("NAS and a fancy Ankh" is still good, too.)

I also had a bottle of this once and wasn't a fan. Fake-tasting. I suppose a well aged IB Jura would be the way to go? I've been eyeing a 23 YO heavily peated CS from Signatory. $100 when Binny's runs a sale. Steeep, but it sounds pretty promising.

10 years ago 0

@Frost
Frost commented

@OlJas I'd certainly be interested to hear your thoughts on the CS Jura. I recently tried an independent bottled Jura with no artificial colouring & non-chill filtering. It was nice and very salty.

Unfortunately I see here often people mentioning the sweet artificial notes in many a Jura and Dalmore. Quite sad.

10 years ago 0