LeeEvolved
Jura 18 Year
Single Malt — Islands, Scotland
Reviewed
February 5, 2019 (edited October 21, 2024)
This review is for the recently rebranded Jura 18 year old. The entire line has been redone and reimagined, with new finishing casks, higher ABV’s, even bottle shape and label redesign. This new 18 year old is matured in American white oak casks and advertised as being finished in “quality” red wine casks. It’s also bottled at 44%, instead of the old, standard 40%. It’s still chill filtered and has added color, however. I decided to give this one a try because it was on sale from a European online shoppe for $74- great price for the hefty age statement.
It’s amber orange in the taster with watery, fat legs and smells of cherry, gummy candies and cough syrup right out of the bottle. Uh oh. After some appropriate time (15-20 minutes), I think I can detect real fruit and ripe berries, some light spearmint and very weak oak notes. The zing from the mint doesn’t do enough to overcome the candied sugar note- and that isn’t good.
The palate starts out tasting like real cherry juice, but it’s thick and oily and a heckuva lot harsher than any 18 year old has any business being. A mushy, malty backbone does its best to limit the sugary mess but the only thing that could save the mouthfeel now would be a heavy hit of oak and pepper or just plain, old ABV heat. Too bad neither are anywhere to be found.
The finish subsides after a good while, I’d call it medium-long, but this is one I wish would’ve just gotten over and done with quickly. The ABV shows up late too, and turns things overly hot and astringent. There’s nothing redeeming about any part of the entire tasting experience.
Which leaves me sorely disappointed. Cherry candy and minty syrup do not even make good cough syrup- much less a palatable whisky. If I have to find a bright spot, well...it was only $74 for a bottle. If you need an 18yo whisky on your bar to show off to your friends for cheap and don’t mind having to mix this with 7Up- well...this stuff is for you. Everyone else should stay away- far away. 1.5 stars, with .5 of the score being for the price tag. Cheers.
74.0
USD
per
Bottle
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I’m with you on this one... This is bad whisky! All Jura I had ranged from lackluster to terrible. I still have to try Prophecy though. Great review, as always.
@LeeEvolved Agreed. This app is all about the opinion of the ordinary (and extraordinary) user. The diverse, subjective and, yes, biased views of the community is what keeps me coming back anyway.
@PBMichiganWolverine- yeah, I doubt any of the user reviews here are supplied samples for free (not sure about the professional reviewers here or Distiller staff). But, I do know that it is a common practice in many industries now (just type “paid influencers” on google and look at how rampant the practice is. I hear Instagram is full of them haha). Thanks for the kind words @WhiskeyLonghorn. I try to share my experiences and help fellow whisky drinkers pick from better bottles. Life is too short for bad whisky.
Love the honesty of your reviews!
@LeeEvolved Good scoring summary. I agree. We all have biases but I follow people who I gain good knowledge from, interesting reviews etc. Like you I don't rate Jura but I've had good ones. I just have less patience these days with average distilleries. There is way too much to try out there.
@LeeEvolved so totally agree. Afterall, this isn’t science or math. It’s all opinions based on individual tastes ( and discretionary income). It’s like saying I like Thai more than French cuisine. All opinion and individual tastes. To @LeeEvolved’s point, I doubt anyone here is supplied free pours from distilleries ( I wish!! ). It’s all from hard earned money.
@whiskal - thanks for your input. I think we all should realize that every whisky tasting and review is subjective: things I may love, others may despise, and vice versa. To each his own. I know there are some reviewers that are supplied whisky samples by distributors, brand ambassadors and distilleries, but I am not one of those people. I pay for my bottles with my hard-earned income, so when I find what I consider a dud- I will call it one without apology. I don’t set out to bash a distillery, even when I’ve made multiple bad purchases from them- the next bottle could be a good one. I will continue to buy Jura when I see something that piques my interest or it seems like a good deal and I will review it and post my honest thoughts. These are MY opinions alone, however. All I can really hope is that people who love whisky enjoy the time and effort I put into giving one man’s opinion. Cheers.
I entirely agree with this review, unfortunately I have two bottles of this rubbish to get rid of. Such a disappointment that someone aged this for 18years to turnout such undrinkable garbage.
Solid review @LeeEvolved - not sure that ‘only $74’ is a silver lining though...you can get a bottle of Springbank 10 or Kilkerran 12 or dozens of other 4+ star bottles for less than that. Cheers for the guidance of putting this one in the ‘do not buy’ bucket. :)
@cascode - funny you mention bottle shape. I was going to add a line in the review about how the curves on the bottle and the larger midsection would endear itself to the average American, but then I remember that I resemble those remarks and quickly deleted them haha.
@LeeEvolved @Soba45 The Prophecy expression is the only Jura I have liked, and I liked it quite a lot. Everything else I've tasted from them has seemed somehow lacking or just plain "off". Great shaped bottled however :-)
I bought a discontinued Origin on closeout for collecting purposes. I'm glad I won't be tempted to drink it.
@Scott_E Yeah that was my 2nd highest rated at 3.5 after Prophesy
@Scott_E @LeeEvolved I have a Jura 21 Pinot and a 2014 Tastival. Now I’m curious to pop them open and see if they are outliers or hold true to “Jura sucks” form
@LeeEvolved I quietly root for Jura, but the sadly keep disappointing. The only Jura I enjoyed and purchased many moons ago was Superstition.
Jura - too many fails between success stories.
@LeeEvolved I was having high hopes for these, considering they changed master distillers last year.
@Generously_Paul - well, that is what the kids are doing these days- chugging cough syrup, so...
Looks like this “18 year old” might have been busted with a fake ID
@LeeEvolved yeah true Prophesy was the highest rated of the line by me as well. 4 from me also...it went down hill pretty rapidly from the though. As they say even a blind squirrel gets a nut occasionally :-)
@Soba45 - I figured it would be more of a bust, but I do recall some of the Jura NAS I had a couple of years ago being pretty good. I especially liked the Prophecy bottle. I don’t think I was writing reviews at the time, but my scoresheet indicates I gave it a solid 4 stars. Quite a change from today.
Ah you were keener than I was. I saw the relaunch and thought immediate pass. Good on you for taking one for the team :-)