![]() It’s very dry, but not to the point of feeling like your tongue is completely shriveling up. Funny, I just barely notice the ashy smoke that hit me out of the sample bottle. I’m also getting some grass or barley, and a hint of citrus. The direct oak gives way to other oak-related flavors – first vanilla, then right past the vanilla to full-on butterscotch. American/bourbon oak…not a hint of sherry cask scents to be found. There is definitely a strong oak presence leading the way on the nose. Let’s allow the sawdust to settle and revisit in 5-10 minutes… Whoa! Upon first pouring the sample into a glass and taking a few whiffs to introduce myself, I was smacked upside the nose and through the sinus with overpowering oak. I’ve learned, though, that the way scents are pushed through tiny sample bottle openings can be very misleading. Hmm…nothing at all like any Jura I’ve ever tried. I was immediately surprised by a light peat presence that reminded me of an old Talisker or Caol Ila. Kallaskander on Macallan The Harmony Collectio…Īntihero7 on Glen Grant 15 y.o.I stuck the sample bottle up to my nose to see what flavors hit me first. Paul M on Highland Park Cask Strength Re… Thoughts: Not just beautiful for Jura, but beautiful for whisky. Faint touch of char and smokiness (but not peat). Rich hard wood (but not shavings or sawdust or anything). Oh yeah…and the whisky is at least as good as the tales it is linked to. All seem rather esoteric and badass in mine eyes. Said superstitions speak of protection for the island’s travellers, guarding against malevolent beings and witchcraft, being the tree from which the first woman in Norse mythology was made, having saved the mighty Thor from a powerful torrent, being the tree on which the devil hung his own mother, a portal between worlds, and is the culmination of a Greek myth involving a lost chalice and the blood and feathers of a gods-sent eagle. This one, fortunately, happens to be cooler than most, and ties back to superstitions surrounding the Rowan tree. Like most contemporary whisky releases, the brand found a cool angle and spun the hell out of it. ‘Feith A’ Chaorainn’, means ‘The lands around the Rowan tree’. The malt we’re looking at now happens to fall in that last category I mentioned above. And I think past Jura scores speak to that. I like to believe that I can still distance myself enough to score fairly, though. I’ve romanticized the heck out of the region. Secondly, and probably most tellingly, I cotton to nearly everything that comes from the Hebridean heaven of Islay, and that sort of carries over to Jura as well. ![]() So why then do I give them a bit of a pass? First off, because I think Jura has improved dramatically in the past few years. The thing with Jura, though, is that it’s wildly inconsistent, generally too wine-heavy and often has a nutty/malty character that doesn’t work for me. And then, a few steps down the road from there, two or three have actually been spectacular. And some have actually been quite special. If I’m to be totally honest, several of the whiskies have been less than awesome. I think I’ve conceded this here on ATW before: I have a glaring hole in my common sense and a pseudo-blind spot in some respects when it comes to Jura.
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