Scotch Whisky Review #344: Jura 12 Year

Distillery: Jura.

Region: Island.

Age: 12 Year.

ABV: 40.0%.

Cask Type: Matured in American White ex bourbon barrels for 12 years and finished in Oloroso sherry casks from Jerez, Spain.

Price: Enjoyed at a steakhouse as a pre-meal drink, price I believe was $20 for a pour.

Color: 1.3, Russet/Muscat.

This is the 9th installment of this years’ Christmas Countdown. You can see the 2020 edition here and 2019 edition here.

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Nose: It’s quite barley forward with notes of both roasted barley tea and malt barley being present. There’s some citrus as well, particularly orange.

Palate: Much like the nose, there is tons and tons of malt barley joined by notes of roasted barley tea as well. Orange follows the barley notes once again.

Finish: Short. The orange note lingers the longest, largely in the form of an orange flavored oil or what you get by squeezing an orange rind. There’s a slightly bitter element here as well as a funky note that pops in the back.

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Conclusion: Jura has an almost frightening reputation it seems with one of the suggested Google search results that autofilled for me is “Why is Jura so bad?”. I’d never actually tried one of their OBs and figured a Christmas dinner at one of Omaha’s steakhouses was a good of a place as any to try it. I was pleasantly surprised. It isn’t good by any stretch of the imagination, it certainly wasn’t awful. It’s quite simple and very malt forward with a tinge of orange to color things up. Definitely decent enough to drink, but not one I’ll be scrambling to add to the collection anytime soon. It’s better than my experience with Whyte & Mackay’s other distillery, Dalmore, that’s for sure.

Final Score: 70.

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Scotch Whisky Review #344, Island Review #52, Whisky Network Review #494

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Scoring Legend:

• 96-100: The perfect dram, nectar of the gods.
• 90-95: Near perfect, there is something truly special about this whisky.
• 85-89: Amazing, will always try to keep a bottle of this in my collection (if feasible).
• 80-84: Very Good, maybe only one minor nitpick about the whisky keeping it here.
• 75-79: Good, quite enjoyable to drink.
• 70-74: Solid, wouldn’t go out of my way to get it.
• 60-69: Meh, still drinkable.
• Below 59: If you have a bottle of this, start cooking with it instead.