Jura Turas-Mara
42% ABV - Isle of Jura, Scotland
Nose: Cooked red fruit, wet oak, leather, and black pepper, with background notes of chocolate, brandy, and spices.
Taste: Mulled wine and red fruit, lightly smoked. Woodiness and oak spices.
Finish: Sweet and spices.
This is one of the most interesting bottles of whisky that I’ve tasted. The nose is all over the place, the palate feels so thin, and the finish is quite short! This feels like a prime example of when a distillery uses Travel Retail Exclusives to test an international market with a new style of expression. I hope that it didn’t catch on into a core range, hehe… well, all right, I am being a little bit judgey of the whisky. It still was a good value, and I have no regrets.
I had a lot of fun with this whisky. I bought it at the Vancouver Airport on my way out to Australia… opened it the first night… and proceeded to have a dram or two for most of the next fourteen nights that I was travelling for! I think that I came back with approximately 8 ounces so that I could share it with friends and come back to it later myself. When I am writing this review, it has been nearly five years since I opened this bottle! I am on the last two ounces now… so it is also possible that the flavour has waned and turned a different direction.
Tasting Notes (Official): Finished in a mix of bourbon barrels, Bordeaux wine and ruby port casks resulting in an array of enticing flavours fo honeyed vanilla, succulent black cherries, fleshy grape pulp and juicy raisins.
Tasted 20 February 2023. (Posted 29 October 2023.)
