Jura turns 50

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Jura distillery,  this week being the Fèis Ile whisky celebrations. Today sees the distillery open day, with plenty of tutored tasting sessions, live music and other goodies. I managed to get in on the action from here in Northern Ireland by signing up to a tweet tasting with the Whisky Wire(thanks for the tip off Pete (drinks)!)

There have been distilleries on Jura for almost 200 years, but the current incarnation of Jura distillery dates back to 1963 when architect William Delme-Evans designed the "unusually large" stills that give the whisky its light character.

I'm fairly familiar with Jura, having visited them on my Islay tour last year. Five whiskys this time

 Turas Mara is a new addition to their core range but available only at certain travel retail outfits
. Fittingly the translation is "long journey" and it has been aged in bourbon casks from the USA alongside others from Spain, France and Portugal (I'd assume sherry, brandy and port, but could be wrong). As confirmed by Steve its Spanish sherry butts, French oak barriques & Portuguese port pipes. It's also named for a poem written by former Duirach* Jessie Scott, with her own departure point marked by a plaque on the beach.

At 42% its pretty close to the usual dilution mark of 40% and an attractive mid-golden-blonde colour. On the nose its spicy and boozy with caramel sweetness and some fruity port (?) notes. Its quite sweet with blackcurrant, toffee and a long rich finish.

Adding in some water brought out orange peel plus an earthy spicy quality, cardamom perhaps bringing to mind an imperial wit beer on the nose. The whisky warmth increases in taste and some woody, slightly oxidised cardboard notes appear, that I'm not all that keen on.

With the remainder of the sample I mixed a micro-rob roy, 10ml of vermouth rosso and a generous dash of angostura bitters, stirred over ice. That's a nice way to have it.

Well worth a look in but drink it undiluted!

From jurainfo.com

Another new addition to the range is the 30 year old, bottled at 44% ABV. This spent the latter three years of its ageing process in Gonzalez Byass Olorosso Butts. Named Camas an Staca for the largest of 8 standing stones on the island, this whisky is just a fraction of the age of the stones (estimated at 3000years).

An attractive burnished gold this fella. Nose redolent of a walk in a damp woodland, with some butterscotch notes, quite hot and boozy up front but a lovely woody spiciness and some vanillins and weirdly baked ham after that initial alcohol has subsided.

A splash of water really rounds out the mouthfeel and releases a cloud of peaches and cream to the flavour. The reminds on a sweet shop/ nail bar with sticky pear drops and a hint of nail varnish alongside vanilla and juicy stewed fruits. Its a fantastic drop of whisky, but one I'm unlikely to try again due to its £350 price tag!

From Edinburghwhiskyblog.com

The 1977 vintage is named Juar, Gaelic for Yew Tree symbolising immortality and rebirth. The whisky comes from three bourbon barrels finished for a year in a ruby port pipe. 498 bottles @ 46%ABV were released for this one. It pours fairly pale gold with black pepper and burnt paper on the nose on swirling there's some almond and floral notes. A really interesting burst of fruit in the mouth at first, sweet raspberries and peaches, followed by plenty of alcohol warmth, finishing with some golden syrup and meaty umami notes.
Adding water reduces the fruit and brings out the porridgey nose of a whisky mash accompanied by Christmas cake spices. To taste its a different beast, the fieriness has been tamed revealing a hidden sweet core, well rounded and enjoyable.

From abbeywhisky.com

Delme-Evans was the famed architect that resurrected the distillery in 1963, and a cask strength whisky was released in his honour. A 1988 distillation cask number 1796 was re-racked into olorosso sherry before being released as 586 bottles. It sold out quickly, but a few bottles were retained for tasting and that's what we're privileged to try here.

Another mid-gold pour here with a rich savoury umami nose balanced by undercurrents of geraniums. Its sweet and warming with washed rind cheese, sherry flavours, oak and furniture polish. Adding water to it brings cherry stones, lots of alcohol, spent grains, and sawdust to the nose. Rich parmesan, sea salt and iodine flavours. Still fairly strong to taste and the sherry is right up making itself known. Certainly a sipper but you're rewarded by a long sweet heather honey finish with some green apple notes.

Final whisky to write about is the oldest, soon to be the new 40 year old bottling but currently 39 3/4 years old. As its not being released until 2014, there are no bottle pictures yet! Its a hefty 51.4% matured in sherry and finished in amoroso sherry for a year.
This is a gorgeous dark ruby gold with rummy molasses, strong solvent, weet-a-bix and a big boozy punch here. Very high alcohol with long legs, evaporates off the tongue, strong alcohol, marmite umami, fairly mouth puckering astringency, tannins and plenty of sherry character, a bit of a challenge. No hiding that sherry influence at all here.
With water its still fairly alcoholic but theres smokey campfire, some peaty phenols and tangerine pith. The flavour is completely subdued, but allows it to evolve instead of being overwhelmed by alcohol. Its a seaside barbecue seaspray and smoke. Takes some getting used to but ultimately rewarding.

A completely varied bunch showing how age and different finishes can really change the character of  whisky. For me the Juar was the most enjoyable, though the Delme Evans certainly challenged my perceptions of whisky!
 

Thanks a lot to Steve Rush at @TheWhiskyWire for organising this tasting, its been great fun and tasty too of course. Thanks to Jura @Jura_Whisky for the samples, I hope to visit you guys again soon as my Duirach's own is running low!

*Duirach: a resident of Jura. You can sign up to become an honourary Duirach on Jura distillery website, entitling you to a free dram and reduced ferry fare.

 

Islay Overview

I've put together an image map so you can see where all of the Islay distilleries lie and find all of my Islay distillery posts more easily.

ardbeg | lagavulin | laphroaig | bruichladdich | kilchoman | bowmore | caol ila | bunnahabhain | jura

This map was produced using
http://www.image-maps.com/

Image sourced from:
http://www.islayinfo.com/map.html

A Spiritual Home

Beer shouldn't be taken too seriously. As a bit of fun I decided to take a Brewdog beer back to where it began part of its life. Apologies for the Beer-Nut-esque pun!

Sat on the Diurach's table at Jura Distillery

Jura is an island with a population of ~200 people off the west-coast of Scotland. The distillery was resurrected to preserve jobs on the island and now produces four regular expressions. Paradox Jura is an Imperial Stout brewed by the (Marmite) brewer Brewdog as part of their barrel-ageing experiments. This iteration is aged in, you guessed it, Jura Distillery barrels.

Fortuitously I happened to have already been planning a visit to Jura when Brewdog released the beer and after receiving the beer in the trade (cheers Dan!) a plan was hatched.

After an all-too-brief tour around the distillery the beer was released from where I had secreted it (Thanks Daisy!) and offered around any interested parties. As you would expect, it met with mixed reactions, the distillery staff perhaps thinking it sacrilege to put something as weak as 10% in a whisky cask.

And me? I loved it! I've had mixed experiences with Paradox in the past. I was lucky enough to try a few cask versions I have enjoyed but the Laphroaig version was nigh-on undrinkable, being like a gloopy TCP. This one poured a dark brown-black, with a lusciously thick texture and tan-tinged head that soon disappeared. The booze is immediately apparent on the nose but there's also roast coffee, plain chocolate and molasses. It coats the tongue and full of the same flavours in the nose, but magnified, with the sweetness and caramel of the Jura amplifying the chocolate in particular. Lovely finish, full on dessert beer.  

This beer certainly falls into the positive camp of The Great Barrel Aging Debate and comes highly reccomended from me. As for my thoughts on barrel-aging overall?That, dear reader, is another post for another day...

I've another few Paradoxes to sample sometime, perhaps I'll try the same trick...

Jura

The approach to Islay by sea is one of anticipation as you travel up the Islay Sound to tiny Port Askaig. Next to the where the ferry docks from the main land you will find a much smaller vessel - the Jura ferry. You can sign up to become an honorary Duirach (that is citizen of Jura) which gives you a free ferry pass not to mention monthly free dram in the local hotel.

The distillery tour is also free (but needs to be booked in advance). We were lead around by shop manager Sue. The distillery is fairly noisy, and consequentially it is difficult to hear some of the information. We missed the start of the tour due to an excellent lunch in the nearby hotel.

Lovely lady and a mash tun

All of the malt comes from the Inverness maltings. The grist is mashed in a steel mash tun, this differs from distillery to distillery.

wash and spirit stills

There are two wash and two spirit stills which produce the whisky from 8 wash-backs (fermenters). The whisky is then filled into bourbon barrels. It can produce up to 2.5million litres a year. No pictures allowed in the still house (alcohol vapours apparently) but I'm allowed to take one through the open doorway.

The four regular expressions

The tour seems to be over before its started and we end up in the shop where we remain for a good while sampling various drams.  Someone seems to have a lot of money, buying the most expensive bottle in the shop (it transpires he already has one and wanted a pair).

New make

There are four expressions in the core range. The regular 10 y/o, the 16 y/o Duirach's own, the lightly peated Superstition and the heavily peated prophecy. I was lucky enough to try them side by side in the Jura hotel.

The regular expression is widely available and light gold in colour. An aroma of apricots with some sweetness and plenty of fire.

The superstition is a tad darker with some phenols at the back of the palate and a smooth finish.

Prophecy focussed too much on peat for my liking. Darkest amber and quite oily.

Diurach's Own 16 y/o

The 16 y/o was my pick of the bunch so decided to buy some to take home with me. I'll taste it now:

It pours a burnished gold with a spicy curacao orange nose with an undercurrent of iodine and brine. Initially tingly on the tongue it progresses through mushroomy cheese rind and finishes with rich heather honey with a lingering sweetness. Its a more refined version of the 10y/o and one I'll certainly enjoying every dram of.

7 Distilleries, 7 Days

www.islayinfo.com/islay_whisky_distilleries

Well it was actually 8 distilleries in four days, but that doesn't quite have the same ring to it. I've just returned from a wonderful week spent on the west coast of Scotland including a visit to the islands of Islay and Jura.

To be honest I never used to be a fan of any Islay whiskys (or so I thought) because to my palate they were all phenolic peat-bombs with not much other flavour. However through trying whisky-cask aged beers such as Brewdog's Paradox range and Black Isle's Black Islay I came to appreciate that perhaps I had been unfair to them. Indeed not all Islay whiskys are peated and Bruichladdich is now among my favourite malts.

This post is more of a summary of where I went to, a brief overview if you will and I plan to write more in depth pieces on those distilleries I toured.

On Easter Sunday my whisky week began in Oban. Unfortunately they were fully booked for tours. A disappointing start to the week exacerbated by the rain outside,

The order of the day on Tuesday was an early start and two ferries to get from the mainland to Jura. As a long time favourite tipple I was very much looking forward to this distillery and wasn't disappointed.

A ferry back to Islay brought us into Port Askaig, home of Caol Ila - unfortunately closed for rennovation until a week after-bad timing! Bunnahabhain further up the coast were on holiday too, so no visit there either I'm afraid.

Wednesday morning I awoke to find myself in Bowmore (planned) with the eponymous distillery but a stone's throw from our door. That afternoon also saw a tour of Bruichladdich and Kilchoman on the west of the island.

Thursday meant visits to the the south coast "peat monster" distilleries, Laphroaig, Lagavulin and Ardbeg. Being within a few miles of each other it makes for a great walk, and the sea air certainly clears out the cobwebs!

Not a bad haul!

It wasn't just about the drinking however, I also learnt a lot more about the whisky making process, got to try wash (beer) and new make spirit and chat to like-minded people. I also returned acertain beer to its spiritual home and shared it around with anyone interested. Further postings to come!

All in all a very whisky week, but beer didn't escape completely un-noticed with beverages supped from Ayr, Islay, Oban Bay, Isle of Mull and Fyne Ales. More on these and the whiskys later. I'd definitely recommend a visit to this area of Scotland because not only is it beautiful, so are the drinks.

A pair of Bitches

Today is world whisky day and in honour of the occasion, what better than a whisky-barrel aged beer to celebrate? Two whisky barrel-aged beers of course!

Brewdog released their zany collaboration with Three Floyds, Bitch Please, about 6 months ago. That iteration was aged in a Jura cask. But they also secreted some away in Laphroaig casks. Laphroaig is widely accepted to be one of the peatiest drams out there, its phenolic and iodine-full character is certainly an acquired taste and one that I myself have only recently discovered.

I've gotten hold of one of the latter and decided to open alongside the original for a comparative tasting (as I am wont to do). Will my original thoughts on the beer hold true up against the souped up version?

The original first then. I gave this 4.3 out of 5 on ratebeer originally. I said "A lighter beer than I’d anticipated, chestnut brown with cream coloured head and a light level of carbonation. Fantastically complex nose, I can detect toffee, hops and smoked malt with some oak wood character. Smoky/peaty flavour certainly to the fore on the first taste with noticeable alcohol presence and a fruity sweetness that reminds me of toffos. Finishes with unmistakable sugar butteriness of shortcake an alcoholic warmth and the ghost of the wood. A good solid beer." and I largely stand by those thoughts, though the smoke and peat seem somewhat subdued in this bottle.

Two brothers in arms.

Its older, more boozy (13.5% vs 11.5%) brother next then. Its slightly darker but certainly appears the same beer.That is until you get a whiff of its aroma and its unmistakably been fraternising with that more southerly distillery. Phenol, smoke and deep heat are the order of the day and it tastes like inhaling a bonfire. The sweet toffee is still there but the subtleties are lost and replaced with vegetal peat, iodine and ash and a massive warming finish from that lovely ingrained whisky. Perhaps a touch of cola hidden in there too. Certainly an acquired taste and even one I can't take too much of. I still enjoyed the beer but it could perhaps have come out of the barrel sooner to retain some of the base beer characteristics.

As always, don't take my word for it, give it a go yourself. It may seem pricey, but for the strength its pretty decent. Both beers are still available in the Brewdog Online shop. I'm off for a wee dram.