Jura 1989 (Signatory for The Whisky Fair)

This is one of the festival bottlings of the The Whisky Fair 2014 held in Limburg, Germany last weekend. It is a peated Isle of Jura 1989 bottled by Signatory Vintage. There’s also a sister cask #30725 which was bottled at 46%.

Isle of Jura 24 yo 1989 (58,8%, Signatory Vintage for Whisky Fair 2014, peated bourbon barrel #30724, 193 btl.)

Nose: the peat isn’t too heavy, which also means complexity is high. Sooty notes, wet newspaper, also quite a lot of coastal notes. Olive juice, kelp, a little iodine… Soft earthy notes and grass. Burnt heather. Ginger. After a while, some creamier notes emerge, really nice ones like ripe gooseberries and strawberries. Toffee too. Great.

Mouth: oily, really salty and definitely more peaty / less mellow than the nose suggested. Grapefruit and softly bitter (burnt) herbs. Also a punchy antiseptic side. Sharp brine. Smoked, salted fish and oysters. Still some sweet lemon and vague white fruits underneath.

Finish: long, quite sharp and briny again, with grasses, herbs and liquorice.

This Jura 1989 starts really balanced on the nose and becomes a little sharper, more medicinal and peatier on the palate. Nice evolution, nice complexity. Around € 125.

Score: 88/100

ps/ Cask #30725 comes at a lower strength of 46% (213 btl.). That one shows even more creaminess and fruitiness on the nose. It also rounds off some of the sharpness and herbalness of the palate. In the end it will come down to personal preferences, but complexity is pretty much the same for both versions, and nothing beats 46% in terms of drinkability. Around € 100.