Jura 1977 – 46%

Light golden orange in colour. This was originally matured in three first fill bourbon casks before being finished in a ruby port pipe for 12 months.

The initial smell is not quite so in your face Jura as younger house expressions can be, which is a nice start to this old man of a whisky. There are plenty of good oak notes here backed up by sweet vanillary back notes.

On the palate the Jura character shows its head more, and the woody notes, although present, don’t appear as strongly as the nose may suggest, in fact they’re perfectly balanced. The mouth feel is full and oily, and the palate is extremely smooth.

There’s a rich fruity long finish that hugs your chest with the subtle warmth of a dying sun on a summers eve and leaves those beautiful wood notes lingering for a long while. Left in the glass is a definite whiff of smoke.

I’ve always heard that Jura is best when well aged, and this is a perfect example of just that, it’s a magnificent dram that I’m most honoured to try.

It’s £600 a bottle. Is it worth that? Well, if you have a spare £600, have nothing to do with it and you’re a Jura fan then this may well be for you. Otherwise (in my opinion) it’s not worth the money, I’m not sure how good something would have to be to get me to part with that kind of money. If I had £600 I’d buy something else. If I still had a spare £600 when other things were obtained (Port Ellen or Brora), then I’d jump at a bottle of this, because it really is awesome stuff, it’s just a shame some of their younger stuff doesn’t quite show the intrinsic quality that is so obvious here.

If money is no object then this dram is well into the 90’s in score.

Samples provided by The W Club (Whisky Shop) and by Whyte & Mackay (Jura’s owners).