Boutique-y Jura Batch 5 20 Year

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This malt featured in our 2020 Whisky Calendar on Day 16. Despite its somewhat unusual nose, it was a big hit, especially with the staff! Bottled after 20 years at 48.2%, it has an 86pt score on Whisky Base.

Producer Description: "Our fifth batch from the Jura distillery is a 20 Year Old, a release of just 901 bottles at 48.2% abv."

About the Label

"This ace expression from the eponymous island features a reference's to George Orwell's 1984, which the legendary author wrote while on Jura. It's also got a reference to Jura's overwhelming deer population. It’s all been done in the style of communist-era Russia propaganda poster from the 1980s. Pretty damn scary if you ask me! We have rewritten a few lines from his famous 1984 novel to fit our love for whisky."

500ml ml

Region:Scotland > Islands

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Whiskyfun.com Tasting Note by Angus

Colour: straw. Nose: very Jura! This avalanche of mashy grains, wort and root vegetables baked in honey. Also waxes, suet, bouillon, over-stewed chamomile tea and some kind of fermenting honey. Charismatic, weird and a whole heap of fun! Mouth: same feeling, but with many more waxes, honeys, breads and a myriad display of mechanical oils, toolbox grease, hessian rags and bike chain 'stuff'. Really, you cannot say that Jura does not make a spirit with personality. Although, you can also see why the commercially minded owners might be tempted to clobber their distillate into Supermarket uniformity with any number of active woods. Finish: medium but very fatty, waxy, beery and going towards lactic notes and mustard powder. Comments: I can see why some would find this too extreme, parts of it remind me of some Loch Lomond makes or some rather off the grid old Irish whiskeys. For me however, I love this zany profile. We are a very long way from Glen Boring!
SGP: 472 - 87 points.

Producer Tasting Note

Nose: Light hints of treacle and salted butter emerge through nutty barley, sugary biscuit dough and cut grass. A little coastal air and soft, oily smoke is present underneath.

Palate: Waxy orange peel, dark chocolate and sweet gingerbread combine among butterscotch and white fruit. Milky coffee adds a little pleasant bitterness later on with dry oak and a herbaceous element.

Finish: Madeira cake, a touch of lime zest and brown sugar linger.

Originally written by Evan for a blog post relating to KWM's 2020 Whisky Calendar.

The Isle of Jura Distillery is the only distillery on the Isle of Jura (yes, I did read my previous sentence and no, I am not going to change it). The distillery site was originally founded in 1810 when it started its life under the name Small Isles Distillery. While it operated for most of the 19th century, it was shut down in 1901 and mostly dismantled. Jura Distillery was finally rebuilt and revived six decades later in 1963 when whisky production on the site started once more.

The distillery may not receive the amount of love from consumers that it should, currently. It is owned by Whyte and Mackay/Emperador and while the company does try to put focus on the Jura label, it is overshadowed by another brand in their portfolio. That is Dalmore Distillery, which has more of a following (and a lot more pretension in my opinion). It could be worse, though: Have you heard of Fettercairn or Tamnavulin? In Alberta, we just started to receive official bottlings from these two distilleries, but not much effort has been put into making them household names at this point.

While Jura whisky has a fanbase, the label and lineup have been a little scattershot and schizophrenic over the past decade or more. For years, it was tough to figure out what kind of whisky you were going to be getting from a lineup that carried both unpeated, lightly peated, and heavily peated whisky. I know they were trying to brand their peated styles with the mysterious names of ‘Superstition’ and ‘Prophecy’, but telling what was peaty and what was not in their range could be difficult for consumers.

The Jura brand was relaunched in 2018, though you can still find some of the older bottlings on shelves. The new range might not be much better for consumer understanding.

That Boutique-y Whisky Company (TBWC) is part of the Atom Group, which also owns the UK retailer Master of Malt and a number of other subsidiaries. They are a dynamic and innovative firm, who by example invented the Whisky Advent Calendar concept. Established in 2012, TBWC is famous for its playful and colourful labels, which often feature prominent whisky industry figures, tell a story, and or elude to an inside joke. The labels are typically laced with hidden elements and "Easter Eggs."

TBWC bottles whiskies from around the world, though the bulk of their offerings are of Scottish origin. Most of their offerings are small-batch releases, Blended Malts, and Blends. Their "Head of Whisky" is Canadian Sam Simmons.

We are big fans of not only their whimsical labels but also the consistently high standard of liquid they bottle.

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