DuckDrams

Samples, samples, samples. Since this blog started in March I’ve cracked open about a hundred little sample bottles. And in my cupboard I have another 120 or so waiting. Samples are great, I get to experience a wide range of whiskies at a tiny fraction of the price of buying a bottle. And I sometimes manage to get samples of exclusive releases that I’d never be able to get a bottle of even if I wanted to.

But at the end of the day, enjoying a bottle slowly over time is the proper way to connect with whisky — and to review it. That’s how one builds proper flavour memory, something to serve as a reference point. And one can experience how the bottle changes with time and oxidation, sometimes quite a lot and often for the better, especially as one learns to optimise the amount of water to add.

I have been drinking regularly from my assortment of bottles in the past year, and reviewed some of those bottles. While I’ll still mostly be reviewing samples, I want to elevate my bottle reviews going forward. And to present long-time reviews that track my (possibly) changing impression of the bottle over time.

From now on, whenever I open a new bottle I will give a first impressions review that I will publish immediately. At some future point when I think I’ve given the bottle its full due, I’ll make a definitive review. Perhaps, I return once more for “bottle kill” review (like one of my earliest posts) and retrospective. The general idea is that there is nothing wrong about reviewing the same bottle multiple times. And it’s not just to make cheap content, because with the amount of samples I acquire, there is always something new I could be reviewing instead.

For my first ever first impressions review, I have a very, very special bottle, that I carefully selected and bought to celebrate (or maybe lament) my 30th birthday: a 30yo Jura. I was in Paris on my birthday, and then sick when I returned home, so not until now has there been a good moment to crack it open. My expectations are really high. As chronicled on this blog, I’ve had a complete conversion in my appraisal of Jura (as long as it’s old and independently bottled). Furthermore, the bottle is from the independent bottler that in my personal experience has held the highest consistency in quality, D. R. Rattray.

Jura | 30yo (1992) | 50.6% | A. D. Rattray

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Scotch single malt

bourbon barrel

unchillfiltered & natural color

available from €360 (Germany, 2023); I paid €299 from Cognac paradise (July, 2023)

whiskybase

Bottle First Impression

⚡Experience

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Really luscious nose, with praline, lightly toasted nuts, leather, soft wood notes, and a touch of vanilla complemented by citrus (orange oil) and apple juice. There is also a subtle note of damp earth; petrichor, if you will. The palate is incredibly dynamic. In the first two seconds rather mild, a little woodsy (maybe even a bit cardboardy) and with some berries, but in the next two seconds, as I swallow, a bloom of tobacco, restrained and herbaceous peat, herbs (rosemary), coffee, and (copying the apt flavour note from the bottle label), imperial stout. This occurs with every sip! It is, in the end, not as sweet as is felt initially, and slightly bitter in a herbal way. The Jura-characteristic dry walnuts enter in the early finish. The finish is not extraordinarily long, and quite classically juicy bourbon oak. No peat here. Overall, really special and delicious.

💡Thoughts

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I had high expectations, and they were met. Not exceeded, but definitely met. This is an absolute top class whisky in my opinion, and my best Jura to date!

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Worthwhile and Enjoyable
Personal Favourite

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