Isle of Jura

Isle of Jura is a beautiful Island, one of the southern Hebridians, with the breathtaking Paps of Jura dominating the view almost everywhere on the island. One of my dreams is to climb the paps one day.

One of the Paps seen from the Jura Hotel

The name of the island is derivating from a norse word meaning animal, and if you ask a swede to say animal you get the heritage easily.

With fantastic scenery, and less than 200 inhabitants, this is the place to go if you want to get away from it all. Still, there is a small grocery store, a nice little hotel with a good pub and a distillery on the island.

Isle of Jura has always been hit or miss for me, but for today I will try a couple of independent bottlings and see how they do

First up is a bottling from SMWS

Isle of Jura 31.23 23yo 51.7%

Distilled 27.09.1988 

SMWS own description is "Sugared almonds in a matress factory" which actually scares me a little bit.

Image from Whiskybase

The nose is very delicate or even thin, a little fruityness but quite anonymous but what there is is very nice.

The palate is sweet candy-fruits, with a little woodspice and the general mouthfeel is an old whisky like they used to taste in the good old days. Really delicious. It is close to be as fragile as some watered down older whiskies I have tasted but it is saved by the relative intense finish. This is clearly a malt that would have been ruined if watered down, but isn't most at 40% ?

The finsih is dominated by the wood spices and long and relative intense and kicks this whisky off very nicely and the finish is actually so nice I have to delay the start of the next whisky just to enjoy this

This is an excellent cask from Isle of Jura and doesn't remind me of the distilleries own bottlings

Rating 88/100

Thanks to Johanne from The Perfect Whisky Match for the sample. 

Next up is a van Wees bottling, a dutch whisky shop

Isle of Jura, Gordon and MacPhail Reserve 1995-2010 57.8% 14yo

Image from Whiskybase

Nose: This is more traditional Isle of Jura to me. The nose is sweet, ripe fruits with a metallic touch, not far from what I get from Glen Scotia (see a post from last week). Drinking this is a very fullbodied whisky with a creamy tecture, sweet riped fruits with the metallic Isle of Jura fingerprint. I should name it the "West Coast Fingerprint" as it is something I find in Isle of Jura, Glen Scotia and Ben Nevis around 50% of the time I have whisky from one of these three distilleries.

I get a few more notes from this, burned sugared almonds transfering the bitterness into the metalic sense which is dominating in the finish. I am pretty sure the assesment on this whisky is very dependent how easy you can cope with the metallic bitter touch, as the fullbodied creamy texture of this malt is really nice

Rating 84/100

Thanks to Ras Mazunga for the sample

12 whiskybase whiskies in 4 hours

Long time whiskyfriend Ras Mazunga, and fellow PLOWED member likes to send me samples from his whiskybase.com shops own independent bottling label ARCHIVEs, some of which has been sitting on my shelf for some time now. I better do something about it. Normally I would only review 1 or 2 whisky at a time, but today I will do 12!!. A lot of puritans will shake their head on this, but this is in fact a great mirror of how I often drink whisky with friends, where we sit down and go through 20-30 drams and just have fun, and do some light comparisons between the drams

Ras filling our bourbon cask at Las Vegas Distillery

So this is a set of fast reviews where I will spread thoughts about these malts and compare them to each other.

1. Tomintoul 1969 42.4% 42yo
Sweet, fruity, candy, winegums, fruit drops gently replaced by a delicate sweet spicyness when the first nips are taken. This is exactly how you hope an old Tomintoul will taste. Rating 90

2. Glen Grant 1975 46.6% 36yo
Sweet, spicy, also candy again, which for is typical old Glen Grant. Similar in style to the Tomintoul, but more dry and oily, with a lot more spicy wood with a medicinal finish. Rating 88


3. Dailuaine 1983 47.3%  28yo
Very Oily, heavy in texture, classic malt whisky. Grassy oiliness oozes in the nose, and I find it remarkable how the oilyness hits you allready at the nose. Just a hint of woodspice. The remarkably oilyness continues for long in the finish Rating 86

4. Longmorn 1992 48.5%  19yo
After the Daluiane this is back to a more normal texture. Mint is the first thing that hits me, not intense, but more on the light side, still nice oilyness and this has a slight meaty texture as well. Rating 87

5. Imperial 1995 51.7%  16yo
Great Classic Imperial. Mint. Vanilla. This is sooo imprinted with these bourbon characteristics that I could describe this as a bourbon without the heavy wood and the sweet corn. What's left ?. Mint and vanilla. Simple. Great. Delicious. Rating 90


PS Many great Imperials "flooding" the market at the moment from bottlers like Gordon and MacPhail, OMC and Duncan Taylor. This is another one to mark up this relative unknown and unfortunately closed distillery.I'm a big fan of this relaxed simple vanila/mint/bourbon style

6. Glenrothes 1988 53.4% 23yo
Never been the biggest fan of Glenrothes. The 1991 OB was a big pleasuree to me though, and this reminds me of that. This actually tastes a bit like a mix of the Dailuaine and the Imperial!. Fullbodied, not a lot of vanilla and mint, but it's there. Rating 88


Allright, feeling slight intoxicated by now, brewed some coffee (Ethiopean beans off course), to clean my palate between drams. Still 6 drams to go


7. Littlemill 1988 49.3% 23yo
This is the 2nd Archives Littlemill and I really loved the first one, which was an unusual and weird malt malt whisky, but hey, isn't that the Littlemill in a nutshell ?
It's reviewed here : http://danishwhiskyblog.blogspot.dk/2012/03/whiskybase-part-ii-of-iii.html
This is the first "tainted" dram in the session. I wouldn't expect otherwise from Littlemill, which is almost always on the weird side in the world of whisky. Tainted is a hard word, cause there is nothing wrong with this dram, just a slight rubberness, but its my favourite kind of rubberness, it's the women in tight wet latex again. This is smooth velvet latex sherry cask and quite nice. Not very herbal opposed to the first bottling, more mainstream, but still the light fingerprint of Littlemill. Quite smooth and delicious actually. Rating 87


8. Glen Garioch 1990 54.0% 21yo
I always considered Glen Garioch recent bottlings to be somewhat on the rough side, and this is also a bit rougher compared to the 7 first drams, but not as much as expected. The first thing that hits me is the peat. Is Glen Garioch a peated malt or not?, it depends on the period it was distilled in. Around 1990 they for sure used considerable amounts of peat, at least enough for me to pick it up :-)
This Glen Garioch got quite a lot of peat (relatively) but is still very delicate highland whisky. Rather dry, medium woodspicy Rating 88


If you are looking for serious whiskyblogging I would stop reading now


9. Highland Park 2000 50.9% 11yo 
According to the whiskybase website this is 11½ years old. I thought only kids younger than 6 counted their age in ½ years :-)
I didn't describe colours of the drams before, so far most of the drams have been whiskycoloured. This one is far lighter in colour than any of the other drams. Highland Park is said to be heathery and this is exactly what I can taste from this dram right now. After 8 drams my palate is not in the best shape, but I reckon what I pickup is mainly differences from what else I had. HP is also supposed to be peaty, but being a peathead for many years I often find myself immune to peaty flacours, especially after a series of drams. The heather is here. The colour would suggest an immature whisky but is not so. It's rather delicate flowers and probably a good way to experience the true distillery character of Highland Park, not masked by Sherry casks. Well, some would say that sherry casks is part of the HP distillery character so maybe not..:-). First time in this session I feel the spirit of the whisky coming through (ethanol). This is very different to what HP offers itself via their OB's
Rating 83


10. Isle of Jura 1988 51.3% 24yo
What can be more scary than Isle of Jura ?. The OB line tends to scare away most whiskyentusiast, while at the same time being quite popular with people that are not every day whisky drinkers. I have similar views as the mainstream whisky entusiast on Isle of Jura, but I have to admit that some of their special releases have been very nice as well as a few independents. Lets see how this fare...
Some sour notes in the notes which I don't like, but my nose quite fast get used to it and a lot of fruityness emerges. But everytime I lift the glass back to my nose I get this (baby)puke. The palate is better, but still this offnote I dont really like in Jura. Cabbage ? Yuk. This will only appeal to Jura Fans. Admitted, there's a lot of good things going on in this malt, but a delicious sticky toffee pudding is never gonna taste good with sour parmesan cheese in top. Rating 70


I am getting pished now. I for surely how hope the last two whiskies are better


11. Ledaig 2004 61.9% 7yo
The youngster in this seesion. Ledaig often gives me same troubles as Jura. There's just this offnote I never liked (I usually refer to it as the tobermory-note, as this is where I experienced it first many years ago.)
This has got it just a little bit on the nose, but not much. The palate is a fullbodied malt whit great oily texture, but still with a sour ledaig youthness that I am no particular fan of. Well, if you drink a young whisky, expect it to taste like a young whisky. But do young whiskies have to taste sour. No. Rating 79


My hopes are now left on Laphroaig


12. Laphroaig 1998 54.2% 13½yo
After 10 and 11 this is pure whisky heaven :-). A well balanced peaty whisky. Not as floral as I find younger OB Laphroaigs, and this is exactly why IB Laphroaigs is my favourite to OB these years when it comes to 15 years or younger. This is a nice peaty Laphroaig, and if you are a peathead looking for great alternatives to OB islay releases this will not dissapoint you. Rating 87

Final comments :

Archives is an excellent independet bottler which easily matches OB's when it comes to Tomintoul, Laphroaig, Glenrothes and Glen Garioch and gives a good alternative when it comes to Highland Park. If you don't like Ledaig and Jura, Archives wont change your mind. For the more unknown distilleries expect top class whiskies

Distilleries improved

We all have our favourite distilleries, well most of us I guess. We also have some distilleries we have some problem getting along with. Well I do...or did

Things change. A distillery might change their production, or the company owning them might change their bottling style, that can be a change in age, a new bottling range, alcoholpercentage, they might drop chillfiltering their whiskies, or just vat different types of casks together. And my palate changes as well. First time someone gave me a Laphroaig I thought it was the worst thing I ever tasted..that opinion changed fast.

Here's a list of some whiskies which I used to find very bad, just bad, or just plain boring. Bad whisky is often due to some kind of fault in the production, boring whisky can be caused by bottling from casks thats too plain, that is casks that haven't given as much to the whisky as they should, maybe they have been used too many times.

1. Bowmore
Bowmore bottles some fantastic stuff, but in the eighties, something went wrong at the distillery. A lot of bottlings from this era is too soapy and too floral. Any soap is too soapy. These flaws goes for both OB's (The distillery's own bottlings) and IB's (Independant bottlings). This became so bad, a PLOWED Bowmore fan coined the tasting note FWP : French Whore Perfume to describe his experiences with Bowmore. Employess associated with the distillery usually denied this, and some even took offense (You're just a of self-styled connoisseurs was a reply to above when he questioned the distillery, self-styled whisky connoisseurs is now the offficial PLOWED logo)
Well Bowmore isn't like that anymore. I did avoid them for something like a 5 year period, but visiting them in 2007 and trying a few of their drams made me realise that this distillery was worthy again. Avoid anything disitilled before 1994 and after 1979 just to be safe :-)
It must be a company flaw as I have experienced the same flaws in Glen Garioch occasionally and Auchentoshan rarely. Visiting Auchentoshan in 2007 I mentioned this to one of their staff and it was quite entertaining watching this poor lad pretending he never heard about it before
Anyhoo, its 3 great distilleries that has overcome these troubles

2. Isle of Jura
I went to Islay in 2001 and at a bar I ordered the 10, 16 and 21 if my memory is correct. They all tasted of sour socks to me, really really bad. I'd actually revisited these bottlings and other Juras occasionally, the 10 at Fringe 2009 and it was still the same. I must have been complaining too much about Jura, to such an extent, that several of my friends has caught me praising Jura's when serving them blind to me, much to the fun of the donator. So therre is good Jura around. I've tried good Jura at SMWS (better than good actually, it was brilliant). At the entrance to a whiskyfair in Hadsten, Denmark 2009, the welcome dram was a 10yo Jura from Chieftain's, another brilliant bottling. Recently the distillery has changed their line, added some peated malts to their vattings etc.. I like the Superstition and its on my to-do list to try their new bottlings, especially their boutique barrel series which have been praised to me by trusted whisky friends

3. Tobermory/Ledaig
The products from this distillery gave me similar troubles as Jura. Sour socks whisky. I tried some awesome old bottlings, but the general production just seemed bad from one end to the other. Well that didn't stop me visiting the distillery last year. Mull is a fantastic Island and Tobermory (the town) is one of the most picturesque villages in Scotland. At the distillery I had the pleasure of getting spotted by the guide showing us around. Two friends and I, who was on the tour, and never asked a question still got pulled aside from the rest of the group when we enjoyed our compulsary dram after the tour and offered a few more. Somehow we looked like people who like whisky :-)
We had the pleasure, and it WAS a great pleasure, to try their new Ledaig and new Tobermory, both bottled at 46.3%. Nothing wrong with any of these, which was a bit of surprise to me. I gently commented that this was a lot better than what I remembered coming out from the distillery. The guide straight away admitted that the quality of their whiskies had improved and that it used to be feinty. No denials here
Well - there's another distillery for you all to go out and try again.
The same Company also relaunched Deanston at 46.3%. I didn't find the old version of Deanston flawed, just pretty boring. The new version is a lot better

5 years ago I went through a few whiskybooks, magazines and online blogs and made a comparison of ratings of standard bottlings and took an average. The result can be seen here :

http://www.whiskynyt.dk/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=745

The post is in danish, but download the xls-document for the result, here's a key to the columns :
1st column is Jim Murray's Bible 
2nd column is MM Matrix 
3rd column is Whisky Magazine, recalculated 
4th colum is  Jacksons Companion
5th column is an average


As you can see Deanston is last. That wouldn't be the case with bottling available today 


4. Tomatin, Balblair, BenRiach, Imperial and others


Disitilleries can reinvent themselves or get some new owners that cares a bit more about the bottlings coming out. Or an independant bottler might put a distillery on the map

First time I tried the above malts it was something I drank and forgot about 5 seconds later. The distillery bottlings weren't anything worth remembering


Well Tomatin decided to revat their 12, 15 and 18 and going 46 on the last two. Well what a pleasant surprise. Going straight from below average to one of the best OB ranges available

My collection of 18yo Tomatins. Old and new OB's to the left

Balblair relaunched their malts as vintages around 2006 and what an improvement. Another great set of OB's


BenRiach had a change of owners. Billy Walker has been putting out one excellent bottling after the other ever since (except the Birnie Moss..but that wasn't even released as a BenRiach so I suspect they didn't fancy it that much themselves either)


Imperial. Anyone ever paid any notice to this ?. Well, Duncan Taylor did. They hoped they could purchase the distillery, which failed, but the sale was so close to coming through, they actually stocked up on a lot of Imperial Casks. And a lot of the stuff they bottled from Imperial the last couple of years has been awesome. 2nd distillery Duncan Taylor put on the map for me, first was Caperdonich.


5. Arran
Arran bottles a lot and they did so since their malt was 3 years old. Most of this wasn't very good in my opinion. A lot of the terribleness has been hidden by finishes, well, in my case, as I quite often don't like the winery taste of finishes it has been double faulted. I know others liked this, but whisky won't get worse than the Arran Champagne finish.

Arran Peacock and Arran Rowan Tree

Well things are changing. Arran is a young distillery, and some distilleries just need some years in casks before they start to work. As Arran has started bottling whisky 12years and older, it is the ugly duckling turning into a swan peacock. Recent bottlings has been very good. The 12yo OB is a huge huge improvement to the 10yo (look out for a 14yo coming out soon). As well as some excellent single cask bottlings, both from ex-sherry and ex-bourbon casks I do regard The Arran Peacock as one of the best bottlings of whisky ever bottled in it's catagory (Single Malt, several casks - around 12yo)


So, it might be time to retry some of the distilleries you abandoned years ago ?