Isle of Jura The Sound is one of four single malt bottlings in the Jura Travellers Collection (formerly known as the Sherry Collection), its global travel retail series. They are all matured in ex-bourbon casks and finished in Pedro Ximénez sherry casks of different ages (15yo / 20yo / 30yo / 40yo).
This is interesting, I have never seen the age of a cask being mentioned as a sign of quality, assuming an older cask also contained older sherry, which has a better effect on the whisky?
There’s simply no evidence for this and I think the argumentation is flawed. In sherry bodegas older casks will not necessarily hold older sherry. Also there is an inverse relation between the age and the activeness of the wood, so you’re basically ageing in ever more tired wood (we all know sherry bodegas love tired wood). It’s a strange reasoning and sounds like a pretty random way of selling one whisky at a higher price than the other.
Anyway The Sound is the youngest of the series, without an age statement. It was finished in 15 years old PX butts.
Isle of Jura ‘The Sound’
(42,5%, OB 2018)
Nose: freshly sawn planks, that’s what I’m getting. Pencil shavings and a newly opened Ikea delivery. This includes a slight hint of potpourri that you sometimes get with overly active wood. Sour oranges underneath, as well as some nutty hints and leather.
Mouth: sweet, malty and a bit nasty. A bit of caramel. Then off to wet cardboard, grasses and bitter herbs. Sour wood. Some metallic notes and a hint of salted dark chocolate.
Finish: medium, rather spirity, with bitter grassy notes, always with this new wood underneath.
To be avoided, let’s keep it at that. Sold for around € 55 in travel retail (a bit more from MoM), in 1 litre bottles which they call ‘a more elegant version’ of the normal bottle. Ditch the PR agency already and focus on better whisky first.
Score: 65/100