Jura Turas-Mara

Very smooth. Sweet flavor

The thing that immediately catches the eye by reading the characteristics of this Turas Mara (long journey in Gaelic) is the amount of aging casks used to produce it, as many as four! It is not known in what proportion and for how long, but certainly Porto and Sherry are strong on the nose, with a preponderance of the latter. Caramel, therefore, a cherry molasses tart in rivers: a very sweet, almost cloying perfume, rather monotonous. A strong note of bitter orange immediately arrives on the palate, together with a certain astringency (Bordeaux?). Malt, which betrays its young age, dried fruit, nuts, a touch of caramel. The hyper-sweetness of the nose is clearly diluted in the taste, in a curious contrast that leaves a little dumbfounded. The bitter scent is dominant, to one's taste evaluate whether it is a positive aspect or not. There is also a light salty note. The finish remains bitter, accompanied by astringency and dried fruit.

Smokey caramel and vanilla, with a creamy and smooth finish

It’s been a while since I’ve reviewed a travel retail exclusive bottle as it seems my international travel has waned a bit over the last year. I think I only have 1 TRE left unopened in my collection...I’ll have to do something about that soon. So on to the particulars. Turas-Mara is Gaelic for Long Journey (fitting for a whisky marketed towards travelers), bottled at 42% ABV and is chill filtered and has colorant added making it an amber honey color. It’s finished in a combination of bourbon barrels, Bordeaux casks and ruby port casks. There is a small flavor wheel on the box with the categories “Light & Delicate”, “Peated (light and heavy)”, “Rich & Full-Bodied” and “Rich & Intense”. Turas-Mara falls under the last category. Let’s see how accurate that is, shall we? The nose opens with apples and apple juice, clear and defined, with a cinnamon stick thrown in there. Musty charred oak with what I can only describe as hickory, and even though the flavor wheel claims this isn’t peated, I detect a hint of peat. More fruits in the form of tangerines, grapes, strawberries and light port notes. Vanilla cream, caramel and honey with some brown sugar. Malty buttery biscuits, slightly nutty like peanuts and light bourbon notes. Plums and mint chocolate, somewhat perfumed and some light red wine notes rounding out the experience. Nothing bad about the nose at all, just everything was on the subtle side and took a lot of coaxing to come through. The palate hit me like a ton of bricks after the light nature of the nose. Spicy, musty oak, again with the hint of peat. Dry red wine, red grapes and maraschino cherries. Dry roasted peanuts, brown sugar, creme brûlée, cinnamon and nutmeg. Vanilla, plums, peppery spice, mixed berries, apples and pears. A medium bodied mouthfeel that is creamy and semi-dry. The finish is medium long, spices, oak, vanilla and plums. The nose on this one was pleasant enough, albeit on the underwhelming side, but the palate was overly spiced and not all that enjoyable. For the price, $90 for a 1L bottle, this was a big letdown. Jura takes a lot of heat for being overpriced and overhyped. Can’t say I disagree with either point. I would say this is worth a try, but definitely not a buy. 3.25 Cheers

Hello, Jura. The “other” distillery ran by Richard Paterson, that he doesn’t seem to advertise much about, I wonder why that is? I haven’t had many bottles from Jura- the last one I had was the revamped, 18 year and let’s just say that I wasn’t much of a fan. I’ve had the 10 and 12, also I think, and maybe a couple of NAS releases. The shocking part is that according to most of my notes- I’ve enjoyed the NAS ones the most. So, let’s see if that continues. This review is for the TRE release from 2015: Turas-Mara. It’s Gaelic for “long journey” and the story behind this bottle is that it was done to honor local, Scottish highlanders that were displaced to foreign lands long ago. This bottle is chill-filtered, has added color and is also bottled (like most Jura) at odd ABV’s. This one is 42%. It’s shiny copper in the glass and appears very oily. Lots of legs and tons of droplets ring the Glencairn after you swirl it a bit. The nose starts out minty and peppered and very Irish-like: creamy, smooth and vanilla sweet. There’s pound cake buttery notes and some dark, vine fruits in the background. The key here is that everything is on the lighter side. The palate comes out swinging with more dark fruit: plums, blackberries and black cherries. Richly sweet with a more candied sweetness by mid sip. Lightly salted, vanilla chews and caramels coat the tongue before a baking spice note starts tingling your tastebuds towards the finish. Of which, it’s a little on the longer side than most Jura I’ve had before. It’s initially spicy with fresh cut, oak spirals lingering because the sweetness fades really fast. There’s still little to no heat and the oily, heavy mouth feel clings on and on- it’s just mostly wood and pepper. It’s an odd way to finish, after all the dark fruit and vanilla, but it’s not bad. Overall, this is another NAS from Jura that I’d much rather drink than their current age statement stuff. That kind of tells me that they aren’t using premium casks for long term aging, which is worrisome and suspicious. I guess they’d rather ship most of this stuff off for blends and just release NAS stuff periodically to maintain shelf space? I don’t know. That would make some sense behind Richard Paterson not spending much time promoting them and focusing on Dalmore as the premium brand he represents. Oh well, this one is solid and worth seeking out, I’m not sure what a bottle costs, but I’d pay $40-50 for it. Thanks to my buddy, @Generously_Paul for the pour. 3.75 stars, my friends. Cheers.

Light, floral, citrus maybe some raisin. Vanilla Oak.