Scotch Whisky Review #422: Sansibar 10th Anniversary Jura 30 Year (1990)
Distillery: Jura.
Bottler: Sansibar Whisky.
Region: Island.
Age: 30 Year. Distilled in 1990 and bottled in 2020.
ABV: 46.5%.
Cask Type: Sherry Cask.
Cask Number: 5297.
Price: $18 / oz.
Color: 0.4, Jonquil/Ripe corn.
Nose: Overall it is quite refreshing with a lot of bright and fresh notes. Orange oil, tea tree oil, eucalyptus, crisp green grapes, and a very dry white wine are the major notes here.
Palate: It starts a touch bitter with orange rinds being the main note. Then things start to get super chaotic with lots of seemingly competing flavors all whizzing by. There are flashes of white wine, earth, mushrooms, something industrial (think greasy machine shop air), and something between a crème pâtissière and the mascarpone based mixture that goes into tiramisu come through. Adding some water doesn’t really change a whole lot.
Finish: The finish is insanely long, might be one of the longest I have had. It starts sharp and fruity with citrus notes. It turns into a slightly earthy funk before taking a detour over to some creamy sherry and ending up back with an earthy / green note. The tea tree oil note comes again at the end as well.
Conclusion: As much of a reputation as Jura has, the general consensus always seems to be that independent bottlings of it fare better than the official ones. This Sansibar is only the second IB Jura I’ve had and it is quite out there. Blind, I might have guessed it was a Loch Lomond bottling. While the nose is nice and cohesive with a very lovely refreshing set of notes, that is just a calm before the storm. The palate and finish are absolutely chaotic with notes in all directions, very similar to the Single Cask Nation Inchfad. The notes individually are generally quite nice, particularly that crème pâtissière one in the palate, but the package doesn’t seem like it should work and yet it somehow does for me. It isn’t a dram I’d happily pour daily, but it definitely would be something I’d enjoy having in the collection for whenever I wanted something to really dig into. Not bad!
Final Score: 84.
Scotch Whisky Review #422, Island Review #69, Whisky Network Review #576
Scoring Legend:
- 96-100: The perfect dram, nectar of the gods.
- 90-95: Near perfect, there is something truly special about this whisky and I will always try to keep a bottle of this in my collection if feasible.
- 85-89: Very good to amazing, almost the complete product and I’m likely wanting a bottle or two.
- 80-84: Quite good, pleasant overall though there is usually a few things that could be improved still.
- 75-79: Good, enjoyable to drink but ultimately flawed.
- 70-74: Alright, solid and 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.
Scotch & Sheen 
