Today two wee peated Jura


March 10, 2026

Today two wee peated Jura

Another distillery we enjoy tasting from time to time, with its frequent quirks and turns. It’s sometimes a bit unusual, but it’s never boring!

At sundrenched Jura, 2006

Jura 26 yo 1989/2016 (58.9%, Signatory Vintage, Cask Strength Collection, heavily peated, bourbon barrel, cask # 30734+35, 243 bottles)

A peated version. Let us remember that there have been some superb ones, notably among the OBs. Colour: straw. Nose: hay smoke and tobacco smoke rather than peat, with lemon brioche dough and carbon paper, then seawater. All is well, and it is very ‘Jura’! With water: metal polish and melon skin, plus a few cindery notes. Mouth (neat): very lively, very sharp, more on a kind of saline, lemony and peppery peat. Plenty of fresh turmeric arrives afterwards, along with pink grapefruit and passion fruit. Very lovely texture. With water: very lovely peat, lively, more herbal, yet always with a surprisingly lively oiliness. A little smoked salmon. Lively, ha. Finish: long, still a little oily yet lively, with quite a lot of green pepper. Fresh barley pops up right at the end, together with a little banana. Comments: we had tasted a very lovely Jura from the same batch when it was released, this one seems rather superior to me, because of its fruits. And of its liveliness.
SGP: 555 - 89 points.

Isle of Jura 17 yo (48.5%, Elixir Distillers, Macbeth, Act 2, Second Murderer, oloroso sherry hogshead, 1,200 bottles, 2025)

Colour: gold. Nose: it is smoky but it is very different from the 1989, more on soot and ashes, paraffin and, above all, mutton suet, one of the markers of Jura for me, even if it really does not appear all the time. Then little touches of fresh mushrooms and camphor and eucalyptus. That should work very well as a rubbing lotion, as it happens I have a few bruises to treat (nice attempt, S.). Mouth: very lovely, very saline this time, much closer to the 1989 on the palate. Smoked oysters, lemon juice, ashes, smoked fish, grey pepper. Excellent, with a few echoes of the neighbour on the other side of the Sound of Islay. I mean C.I. Finish: long, fresh, very balanced, more on fish and shellfish. Comments: very lovely indeed, we are really licking the 90-point bar, so to speak.
SGP: 554 - 89 points.

(Merci, Wouter)

Check the index of all Jura we've tasted