[Closed] Jura journey 10yo

At that price point and flavour profile, Highland Park.

I do like me a Jura.

I like full flavoured. Happy with peaty and harsher stuff too like lagavullin, but I'll drink more of smoother flavourful stuff. Highland park, I shall look out for that, ta.

Tamnavulin is worth a shout at 22 regularly in the supermarkets

And the loch lomond peated single grain when it comes up on offer for about 25 is lovely

And the loch lomond peated single grain when it comes up on offer for about 25 is lovely

I won a bottle of Loch Lomond stuff (can't remember which one) at a race and it was minging, like rough as guts, worse than cheap blend minging. I assumed they weren't a serious distillery and just relied on the name to sell to tourists. Mind you, I did finish it...

I was expecting a thread about a trip to the French Jura with a 10-year-old kid.

*disappointed*

I have always had Jura down as sans caramel, ergo not a good one. Why have an imperfection?

Whisky caramel.

They do some lovely stuff, much of it not even under the locker lomond name ironically lol

Enjoyed the Jura Journey, as mentioned above, Tamnavulin is nice - just finished a bottle I got for Christmas.

I'm very fond of whisky, very. My brother knows this, so when a colleague of his was clearing out their kitchen cupboards, and offered my brother the bottle of whisky that had sat in the back of one after he'd won it in a raffle years earlier, my brother gladly accepted it and handed it over to me as a birthday present a few weeks ago.

Chivas Regal, 21 Gun Salute in a brown, Wade pottery decanter.

It's still sitting there, whispering to me, but I feel that I need a really good celebration to justify opening it!

Beagy

Highland Park is lovely stuff but expensive compared to ten years ago.

I find Jura very hit or miss, usually miss. Superstition is nice but Origin, Elixir and whatever other one I tried was were just pure headache juice, you can feel your brain dehydrating as you drink it. I think it's the caramel as Superstition is pretty light in that respect, I get the same reaction to Innis and Gunn.

I have always had Jura down as sans caramel, ergo not a good one. Why have an imperfection?

"sans" means "without".

Either way though, it's a non-issue. Caramel is used a colouring, you won't taste it.

Old Pulteney can often be found reduced in the supermarkets. It's very nice

Either way though, it’s a non-issue. Caramel is used a colouring, you won’t taste it.

It's used as colouring but caramel has a taste. Whether a normal palate can isolate the amount used to colour a whisky is pretty dubious but it's better not to have it.

Not long finished a bottle of Jura the I got given, only reason I don't buy it much is that I can never remember the one I like and as one of their range is peated I don't fancy taking the chance.

You can often find Penderyn on offer at around £26, it's a lovely Welsh whisky.
If you like your whisky sherried then anything from Aberlour is worth a go.

Interesting comment about head ache juice. I had one double let night and have felt slightly odd today!

Whether a normal palate can isolate the amount used to colour a whisky is pretty dubious

That being the case,

but it’s better not to have it.

Why?

You can often find Penderyn on offer at around £26, it’s a lovely Welsh whisky.

Can you? Whereabouts? I don't think I've ever seen it at anything like that sort of price, I'd have bought a bottle if I had.

Whether a normal palate can isolate the amount used to colour a whisky is pretty dubious

That being the case,

but it’s better not to have it.

Why?

Because "pretty dubious" doesn't mean I'm entirely dismissing the possibility, and if it's possible why risk an unnecessary additive? Of course I understand you not caring if you value your whisky being browner over its taste.

Can you? Whereabouts? I don’t think I’ve ever seen it at anything like that sort of price, I’d have bought a bottle if I had.

Get yourself down to Waitrose, it was £26 in there a couple of days ago. You'll have to add your own caramel though.

@cougar - Penderyn is often on special offer at Morrisons

why risk an unnecessary additive?

Perhaps because there is no risk?

Of course I understand you not caring if you value your whisky being browner over its taste.

Not at all. Rather, I don't care if it makes no difference to the taste.

I understand what you're saying, I think, but I disagree that the presence (or absence) of caramel suggests an inferior product. It's simply snobbery.

you caramelist !

Penderyn is often on special offer at Morrisons

Ah, cool, thank you. I've been meaning to get over there for a while so that's another good reason.

I tried Penderyn way back when it was new, my thoughts were "it might be nice when it's finished" and it that was overpriced even back then. At £25 it's probably worth a punt.

Perhaps because there is no risk?

I don’t care if it makes no difference to the taste.

You can't accurately say there's no risk - you can't possibly know that it makes no difference to the taste since no distiller is ever going to market a caramel and non-caramel variant of the same expression, but it's an additive which has a taste, being added to a product where taste is important. Because it's being used in small amounts for its colour doesn't change that.

I disagree that the presence (or absence) of caramel suggests an inferior product. It’s simply snobbery.

I haven't made any judgement about inferiority and I'm not a snob. Simply put, I'd rather drink whisky with the taste and colour as it leaves the barrel than whisky with caramel added to meet some arbitrary colour requirement. Others may value admiring the glow of their log burners through a darker dram on those cold winter nights and that's fine with me.

Hear hear , natural colour, non chill filtered and min 46%
Preferably cask strength, that said I'm a whisky snob and a member of a number of clubs
And currently sat sipping the lakes distillery whisky makers reserve no5 yummy

Asked for some recommendations on here a few months ago as was just starting out sampling a few Whiskeys. Currently enjoying Johnnie Walker Black Label and Auchentoshan

I was surprised by black label. My wife's moved onto some burbon that's err ok

Anyone tried Cardhu single malt? Years ago my bro in law and I couldn't get enough of it but I haven't bumped into a bottle for a while now. I know it's out there just wondering if I am remembering good times rather than good whisky

Bargain at £22! Smooth but oodles of lovely sweat and smokey flavours!

I initially thought "sweat" must be a typo for "sweet", then I thought, well, it is whisky (whiskey?) so who knows...?

Are you after something sweet, OP? Or something with a tang of sweat?

Tried Penderyn Myth a couple times.... horrendous excuse for whisky, and I did really want to like it. In contrast, Cotswold distillery whisky is delicious and it really pains me to admit that.

For proper whisky my go to drams are Bunnahabainn 12yo, Aberlour 12yo and anything from Kilchoman

Oban 14 and Caol Ila 12 are my favourites.

I used to be an Ardbeg drinker but lost the love for it the more I drank other Islay malts.

You can’t accurately say there’s no risk

You can't accurately say there is.

no distiller is ever going to market a caramel and non-caramel variant of the same expression

Actually, I think this has been done. I'm 99% sure I remember Richard Paterson talking about it at a Whisky Live event. Couldn't for the life of me remember what it was now though.

haven’t made any judgement about inferiority

You haven't, but that's where this conversation started.

Simply put, I’d rather drink whisky with the taste and colour as it leaves the barrel than whisky with caramel added to meet some arbitrary colour requirement

Maybe it makes it better? If you closed your eyes you'd never know.

Oban 14 and Caol Ila 12 are my favourites.

Hard to go wrong with a Caol Ila.

If you want to try some truly disgusting whisky then Beinn Dubh shows what happens when you add far too much caramel. As a rule of thumb any indy bottlings of any distillery that's owned by Whyte & Mackay will be much better than OB's, mainly because they'll be bottled at a decent strength but also not riddled with caramel. Most OB Bowmores suffer the same fate.

You can’t accurately say there is

I think you're just being wilfully obtuse. Adding something will always risk altering the thing it's added to, how can it not?

Oops yes, sweet not sweat!

I think you’re just being wilfully obtuse

I think you're dodging my obtuseness rather than replying to it.

Adding something will always risk altering the thing it’s added to, how can it not?

Of course. But this isn't how risk works. Something being hypothetically possible doesn't make it likely.

Adding caramel as a colourant was a hot topic when I was just getting into whisky a couple of decades ago and it was resoundingly dismissed as a non-issue by people who have far more discerning pallets than mine or yours. I would be more than happy for you to prove this wrong on a blind taste test but right now it's up there with directional audio cables I'm afraid.

Hmmm, fuzzy head again. Ok I had a large glass but only the one...a triple measure perhaps. I hope it's just that I've not drunk whisky for a while but I fear it may put me off this Jura! Looking at it positively it'll mean I don't have too much at any time.

But this isn’t how risk works

It's exactly how risk works and in the case we've been boring on about it's entirely avoidable.
I've no interest in proving to you whether or not caramel alters the taste of whisky and I haven't even said it does. However, I do suspect there will be a fair few "people who have far more discerning pallets than mine or yours" on the "yes it does" side of the argument as on the "no it doesn't".
Caramel changes an attribute I don't care about while risking one I do and so I'd rather not have it. I can't put it any more clearly than that so if you're still bent on finding an argument somewhere in there you're on your own.

I don't want to "find an argument," rather I think that the perceived risk is one you've invented. You've just said yourself, "I haven’t even said it does [alter the taste]". So does it or not? If you can't tell, how can it possibly matter?

Sure, it's entirely avoidable and I couldn't care less if they never used it again. But you and I are in the minority when it comes to marketing, whisky producers are in the business of selling whisky. That wasn't the point I was contesting, rather that using it as an indicator of a lower quality product is nonsense IMHO.