Isle of
Jura Superstition NAS (43%, OB, bottled 2011, 70cl)
Island Single Malt Whisky
Circa £25
 |
| A Christmas Gift |
Another
of my Christmas gifts, this one was from my eldest daughter.
The
packaging, although only a simple box, really is quite eye catching, with it's
black and white rocky shoreline, low hills in the background and with the
silver printing. The bottle is another work of art with minimal labelling, but
the silver 'ankh' taking central stage
on the front of the bottle.
Subtly
sweet yet smokey, on the small label under the ankh, and despite having the HM
Revenue and Customs logo on the back, the fact that the colour of this whisky
has been 'standardised' by the addition of caramel colouring, has been
carefully hidden on the bottom of the box, in German. Why do distillers hide
the fact that they have added caramel colouring? Sometimes it's in French,
other times in German, never in English !
I asked
the distillery how the expression came about, and what whiskies were used in
it's bottling. Jura immediately came back to me with the following:
As you
are probably aware when the Distillery re-opened in 1963 Jura started producing
very soft highland style malt, and this in the main, is what they are known for.
In 1999 Jura started spending four weeks out of every year producing a heavily
peated version using barley that was up to 60ppm or parts per million peat
based as opposed to their normal 2ppm.
The
Superstition is actually a marriage of both of these styles of whisky together.
There is an old superstition on Jura that it is unlucky to cut peat before the
beginning of May, and so the name was born
Within it are:
7 Year
Old heavily peated (7 year itch; 7 years bad luck if you break a mirror)
13 Year
Old Highland style (unlucky 13)
21 Year
Old Highland style (coming of age when you get the keys to the door)
The ankh
is the Egyptian symbol of eternal life; the Gaelic for whisky translates as -
the water of life, and on Jura there are graves that house the bodies of people
that were reported
to have lived more than 130 years.
In order
to drink the Superstition properly you must hold the bottle so that the ankh
touches the palm of your hand when you pour - that way you get the full benefit
of our best wishes for a long healthy and prosperous life.
And so I
carefully poured a healthy dram into my nosing glass, making sure the ankh was
in the palm of my hand. The colour of autumn leaves, a rich almost orange gold.
Body: an oil
like coating the inside of the glass with long legs trailing back into the
liquid
Nose:
lightly peated, fresh, orange blossom, floral, butterscotch, white pepper,
definitely white pepper.
Palate:
salty or briny, the white pepper again, butterscotch and vanilla, smooth and
quite light in the mouth.
Finish:
long spicy with a little smoke, but not a heavy Islay peaty smoke, and the
saltiness is there.
My Jura
Origin 10 Year Old took time to grow on me, but I really loved it by the end of
the bottle. I think the Superstition has taken off where the Origin left me and have really
enjoyed starting this bottle. Although I understand it is not to everyone's
taste, I love it.
