ralfy review 1041 - Isle Of Jura Cask 1892 @57.2%vol: (Distillery Only)

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[@whompbiscuits8930]

This Isle Of Jura review tells us just how capable distilleries are when it comes to making quality spirits, but *choose* not to when it comes to the rest of their product line. If you're a distillery and your only quality spirit is a one-hit-wonder or a "limited edition", you've chosen to fail the rest of your product line despite the resources obviously available to you.

[@adriannudelman4519]

totally agree!! Best regards. 🥃🥃

[@tonychettleburgh8953]

I have just opened a bottle of their 12yr old that you can only buy from whisky retailers like Master of malt and it is absolutely delicious. It is full of coffee, dark chocolate, caramel, vanilla flavours that hang around for quite long time. I came down and this morning and the empty glass smells so nice I could eat it !! This is only 2 or 3 quid dearer than the 10yr old and about 100 times better. I also have been buying their 12 and 15yr old sherry cask versions direct from the distillery that are not for UK market and these are really good too.

[@1stMemberEver]

Finding a good Jura is rarer than winning lottery two times in row. You lucky dog.

[@deccyboi4218]

Jura 18 twice almost won TWE whisky of the year blind competition

[@MrFranganito]

Jura 12 "the bay" is not bad imo

[@danswank3378]

I got a Jura distilled in 1987 that is a cask strength. It is nice and complex

[@mrnosebear7406]

Hi Ralfy, I am shocked and surprised now. I am so happy with you that you found a beauty like this. Thanks for sharing your joy. Cheerio from a pat-pal in Germany

[@chrisbearg]

Love the review! I bought a bottle of this at auction a few months ago after reading a similarly positive review on Dramface. Still looking for another Jura “sparring partner” to taste along side this, and now I am so glad I bought a bottle!

[@dram_kruzhok]

So whoever manages the Jura distillery (Whyte & Mackay) have chosen the maverick marketing strategy of flooding the stores with mediocre versions, while keeping the good stuff, of which the distillery is perfectly capable, for the distillery-only bottlings. Fascinating! "Good luck to them" 🤡

[@seanzealony9499]

Dalmore are doing the same at present 😱 Quantity over quality Also owned by Whyte & Mackay.

[@dram_kruzhok]

@@seanzealony9499 I haven't tasted Dalmore in a few years, but at least I remember the 12 being tasty, even if overpriced and over hyped. But yes, some companies are their own worst enemies.

[@user-de5sf7cc2r]

Mediocre is very generous

[@dram_kruzhok]

@@user-de5sf7cc2r you're right, I was just trying to be polite :) Jura 10 and 12 were among the very few single malt scotches that really left me negative. Mediocre is something simple, yet competent, like Speyburn 10 or Glenlivet 12 - totally drinkable, respectable and recommendable to beginners. Not Jura 10/12. I would ask for my money back, if I could. NAS releases from Glen Moray and Loch Lomond are better, and cheaper.

[@WhiskyLoversSociety]

Nice to see a Jura. I have the Bay and I love it. But I see there are not a lot of love for Jura in the community. Cheers.

[@jtf2dan]

I found the Jura Tastival 2016 on the shelf at my local LCBO about 6 years ago, and the Jura Tastival 2017 about 6 months later. Both bottled at 51% ABV. Havent cracked them yet, but am looking forward to it one of these days. Thanks for reviewing this special release....

[@i_am_still_human]

Hey Ralfy, much appreciation for what you're doing here. You are my guru! I am wondering... what's happening with your Infinity Bottle??

[@kennycambus2853]

Great review. I was lucky enough to access a similar Jura via an independent bottler this year. It was labelled a mystery distillery and I was stunned to find out it was a Jura as, like Ralfy’s bottle it was miles better than core range

[@Nicolas_Allende]

I'm so glad you've found an actually decent Jura! A malt mention for you: Musical melliflous moo's.

[@riteshnayak80]

Jura has am always impressed me with it's chocolatee, raisinee, rum-plum cakish personality!!! ❤ At 57.2% this will be a bomb!!!

[@MichaelCash-kp7lf]

Well Ralfy, I personally feel vindicated. I started drinking Jura in the late 80’s, and grew to love their bottlings, and I’ve stood up for the integrity of Jura’s spirit ever since. Sadly for me the issue is how they’ve been presenting their whisky the past few years, the more recent lower end bottles do not do them justice, and they have indeed grown a negative feeling from others, some of whom I think are repeating what some commentators are saying, without trying for themselves. I tried this bottling you’ve reviewed here, a few weeks ago, and like you found it to be fantastic dram, showing what Jura can be, it is a great bottling. Thank you for reviewing it, it’s great to hear something so positive for a Jura whisky, and keep up the great work that you do 🥃

[@DavidUKesb]

There's a huge amount of Groupthink in whisky circles.

[@Johnstone72]

It is right and proper to call out the indifferent attitude certain distilleries have towards their own customers. You also take time to promote those making the effort to deliver quality flavour and integrity to Whisky buyers. In short, hell slap intae them Ralfy. An informed and discerning consumer will (In the long term.) improve the industry.

[@willthecat3861]

Hi Ralfy: Well... it's been a while since you showed up as a KZbin recommendation! Good to see you!

[@simonsherratt1484]

Hey Ralfy! The White Peak distillery in England are producing some seriously high quality interesting whisky. I'd be very interested to hear your thoughts on their stuff, in particular the Alter Ego and Bourbon Barrel versions. Those two are more spirit forward and less cask dominated. Happy dramming!

[@andrewblatherwick8758]

Jura is the most underperforming distillery out there. I've had a few official bottles and agree with most of what you say about it I've also had a couple of indy bottles which were cask strength with a double figure age statement and totally different to the usual supermarket offerings.

[@davead6578]

I recently acquired a 14 year-old 2007 Jura from Hunter Laing’s First Editions line. Matured in a sherry butt and bottled at 50.1% abv. Delicious, tremendously smooth.

[@yusufsayed1583]

Hello Ralfy 😊 Awesome Review👌🏽 Thanks For Sharing 👏🏼👏🏼 Enjoy Your Pour🥃 Greetings From South Africa 🇿🇦

[@benshady79]

Thanks a lot Ralfy, now I’m craving a Whiskey I have no chance of getting or tasting here In Louisville… just kidding… kinda….. seriously though another great review.

[@Dean-gt2cr]

Jura is well and truly on my hate list, the crap they pump out is embarrassing! but everything you described in the video had me salivating 😂

[@Paxmax]

Yeah, tried Jura 10yr ..or was it 12 yr? That bottle felt like it lasted forever. I had to sort of "forget" between occasions how much I resented it. I Islays are my favorites otherwize.

[@Alfred-KnowYourRights]

Ralfy, nice review, good to see a 90 rating. Trouble is we won’t be to find and buy this bottle. And as per your commentary of Jura in general i don’t think I’ll be buying it soon.

[@robfut9954]

People absolutely are NOT thinking about health more. Smoking cigarettes is down, but smoking cannabis is way up. Drinking is slightly down, if at all, but hard drug use is way up. Pharmacy drug use is sky high. Pain killers are abused everywhere, we are far from a healthy society. Sugary drinks, beer, and scotch are less than a concern in light of the rest

[@arnosaxena]

I like the superstition. To bad one can not get it anymore. I got 1 and a half bottle left. When that's drunk, my experience with Jura most probably will come to an end. That, or they'll make the decision to create some good whiskey again.

[@wallace-bv4rl]

That was great. I can remember where I was when I tried the replacement range. Devastated!

[@ibelle42]

Time to start an infinity bottle!

[@Mylatestdram]

Unfortunately I had bad experiences with Jura. I've tried a few, but it never gets me. Unpleasantly sour or yeasty, Play-Doh and thats not even in just one bottling. The Whyte and Mackay Group are terrible in owning distilleries. Maybe I should tackle and Independent bottling someday or try some on a whiskyfestival.

[@martindouwe6099]

The 19 y/o The Paps is also a very nice whisky

[@richardamiro8266]

Cat in the Bothy. We are all human even Ralfy. 😸

[@JoshuaJ01]

Hi Ralfy, very nice bottling you found there! But I am curious what type of glass you are using. Do you mind telling me what it's called or where you got it? Cheers from Germany!

[@janezverbic2093]

Yea, i wouldnt wanna shock my body. I sip it every day and get hammered every second weekend.

[@mr2gordons940]

Ralfy, your negativity hasn't been creeping in, it knocked down the Bothy door with all its luggage to settle in for the long stay. The aggravation at the industry is perfectly understandable, if nobody calls them out for their actions they have no chance of changing. The purchasing power of the passive consumer (that I expect makes up the majority of sales) can effect change, and doing so, by cutting way back on buying, should leave the whisky industry minus several current distilleries if it were to play out as I'd imagine. It's just hard to fathom losses on that scale.

[@tonychettleburgh8953]

Hi Ralfy, I fully agree with your assessment of Jura distillery and their whisky. Back in 2013 I celebrated my 60th birthday and enjoying the Jura line up at the time . To celebrate my birthday I contacted the distillery to try and purchase a special festival bottling which they happily agreed for me to do. This was I believe a slightly peated whisky matured in a. 1963 sherry butt bottled at 56%abv . This was absolutely one of the best single malts I have ever had to date and tried to buy another one but they had sold out. Fast forward to 2018 and Jura announced that they were completely changing their core line up and all the old core range were going to be discontinued. I thought this was a very stupid decision especially at the time Jura was one of the best selling whiskies on the market. To cut a long story short (ish) I think it was a very poor decision as none of the new line up is anywhere near as good as the old. Whoever signed off stuff like their present 10yr old needs to hang their head in shame. The 12yr old is a lot better but still not as good as the old one. I haven't given up on Jura because as evident in your bottling they can produce some really cracking drams. Incidently, their new 14yr old rye cask is really tasty so hopefully they have realised their present core line up sucks a bit and this is the start of some decent stuff coming through.

[@davidoneill913]

They've released some frankly rotten whisky in the past so about time they upped their game

[@1Fmarcel]

Contradiction: You love bottle aged Johnnie Walker Red, which I'm pretty sure is and always have been column still whisky (Johnny piss of as we called it) But hey who's talking, there is a Cutty Sark on my kitchen table, which I find quite pleasant and looking forward to tasting my latest acquaintance Stronachie .

[@0oDaan12o0]

The exeptions proves the rules of thumb are just that. Just like this Jura bottling being good.

[@andyreeves8941]

I think I may have bid against you on this one. Should have gone higher 😂

[@seanzealony9499]

Jura got absolutely slated on a recent whisky vlog. You saying how difficult it is to get to Isle of Jura and having to go via Islay maybe reason for its quality being below par. Not sure how much revenue the Islay distilleries make from visitors, but with Jura being so hard to visit maybe they are cutting quality & upping production to keep profitable. Surely if the number of people had to go to Islay via Jura they’d take care of quality for customers. Or maybe not! I’d like to see how much money the visitor centres generate on Islay. Jura distillery must watch their neighbours with envy.

[@DavidUKesb]

Was that Big Jake, Super Stevie, and Tintin?

[@seanzealony9499]

@@DavidUKesb It was 👍🏻 Just watched the latest vlog of there’s with Diageo rep. Big money drams being tasted.

[@Jura2112]

Hi Ralfy, long time viewer, first time commenting, maybe rightfully so on this video, given my name 😅 Suggestion for a malt mention: Hello you Malty Mixed Martial Malt-artists

[@thewhiskybothy]

. . . now on the M-mention List, thanks !

[@CharlesOffdensen]

9:55 I don't believe that. Some whiskies were matured in "ruby port casks". Ruby port, by definition, doesn't use any casks. I was looking at the process of making Palo Cortado sherry and I can't believe they would use fresh casks. Even the top casks in the solera are very old and inactive. An active cask would ruin the sherry. So no real sherry cask can ever be used for whisky, it wouldn't do anything, that's the point of sherry casks. And if the whisky industry is lying about "ruby port casks", I wouldn't believe anything they tell about actual sherry casks. No, all of them, probably 100% are seasoned casks.

[@0oDaan12o0]

Sherry (and port) used to be shipped into the UK using transport casks which were bottled in the UK. That was a lot cheaper than bottling it on the mainland and transporting crates. These days, that's not allowed anymore with a lot of brands so they started putting cheap sherry/port in a cask to season the cask. The ruined spirit is either re-used for another cask or thrown out after taking up the wood notes, and the cask is sold to/used by the whisky industry. There are exceptions of course. You're absolutely right about solera casks, those tend to be used for decades an dlonger for sherry maturation and the older the cask, the lower its activity (and the pricier it gets). They'd never sell the oldest casks unless broken, and then you still have to come with serious money. IIRC one of the rare exceptions is Glenfiddich 15 Solera which is matured in those actual casks but I don't vibe with their NAS, 12 and 18 so haven't tried the result.

[@CharlesOffdensen]

@@0oDaan12o0 I think the whisky makers don’t buy casks from sherry/port producers, but from cooperages whose job is to season casks. After that, I guess they use the “sherry” to make sherry vinegar, reused (like you said), or maybe distilled into brandy. As for Glenfiddich 15 Solera, Glenfiddich use their own solera system, it’s not like they buy casks, used in a sherry producer’s solera. Glenfiddich have a giant solera cask on their site, and even a few smaller solera tuns. If they did, the whisky wouldn’t age in those completely inactive casks. Regardless of how much money they would cost, it won’t make sense for a whisky producer to use them. So I am not angry that they use seasoned casks only. That’s what they should be doing. I am angry, that they are not saying this outright. I don’t think there are any “sherry” or “port” casks in this industry. Yet, this is not clear at all.

[@davidmarshall8628]

I've told a number of people who tout The Macallan that if they tried a 1978 distillation season 18 year old like I bought in 1999 they would be sorely disappointed in what they're getting now.

[@cantbendknee]

Hey! As a Casio fan I resent the comparison with Jura. What do you think of the Macmyra bankruptcy?

[@DavidUKesb]

I've always thought that Jura needs more age than most distilleries. The 16yo has long been the islanders 'go-to' whisky, while the long discontinued 18yo was excellent.

[@0oDaan12o0]

Jura's current 18 is a lot like any regular bourbon; just a bunch of oak tannins. It's closer to a 6yo bourbon than an 18yo whisky. For a distillery talking about high quality casks and rare oaks (like the 7-oak) that much, they seem to have either a poor wood quality policy, or a bunch of quality casks that don't mix well for their end products.

[@williamdriessen667]

Hi Ralfy, just noticed you don't use Glencairn glasses as you used to: is there a reason for that?

[@brian6x]

So, corn does not weather well in bottles. Does that mean Bourbons would not last?

[@andypike1234]

What this would be with the old scoring system? The highest Ralfy´s mark ever?

[@DavidUKesb]

Would certainly be in the Top 5 at least.

[@simonsherratt1484]

Ralfy's highest ever score was a St Magdalene

[@DavidUKesb]

@@simonsherratt1484 Yes, but that was under his previous system.

[@christinecamley]

Jura is not on my radar anymore. Interesting thoughts.

[@jujtan5412]

Haha.. hope one Ralfy. Finally a 90 to a Jura! Who would hv thought! Flippers be like... Duh!!.. 😂

[@dane5896]

👍👍👍

[@azsmi]

WhiskeyMates, store the bottle in the box or tube it came in, Or store just the bottle? Whats best?

[@dram_kruzhok]

In the stash the bottle stays in the tube/carton it came in. Preferably inside a cardboard box with other bottles. Away from light and temperature fluctuations. An open bottle just lives in the cupboard or in the shelf, away from direct sunlight, until finished 😁

[@0oDaan12o0]

Depends how much space you have. In a single cabinet, without tube you can stash more bottles. But I keep mine in the tube and out of direct sunlight (and [seconds of a lot] in a box in the basement) whenever possible.

[@n80sr5]

Ralfy, I know a specialised Whisky shop in Australia (Brisbane) that have very expensive Macallan’s, Glenfarclas & Octomor’s displayed behind the shop front glass so the pedestrians can see the calibre of the whisky they sell… I cringe every time I go there. Imagine the damage it causes to the thousands of dollars worth whisky sitting in the hot Australian sun … 🫣

[@garyshields8851]

where is your bro ?

[@michaelgmarks]

You gave that a higher malt mark than Springbank. Don't think your new mark system is reflecting the actual real evaluation of the products. Highly doubtful you think this is better than the last Springbank you reviewed, is it?

[@christinecamley]

I have just never enjoyed Jura.