Yesterday was a hectic day. It began well enough, sleeping in until about 9 am (a real luxury in my house), with morning coffee and the paper, and some good conversation with my wife. That afternoon however was where it all began to fall apart. See lately my wife has been into the whole coupon craze. It is good, because it does save us a ton of money, but she sent me to go get some of the couponing items, and I’m here to tell you it is STRESSFUL! So I went to a couple stores with a couple transactions each, and man I was DONE with couponing for that day!
When I got home, it was time to get dinner going. Unfortunately after my 2 hours shopping, I had to come home and make Beer Can Chicken. Made that with a Back In Black IPA from 21st Amendment. Good stuff. But the prep was insane. For some reason it was all very rushed and I had to get it on the grill right away. Frenetic pace.
After dinner, I just wanted to collapse and recuperate. I retired to the front porch with a Jura 16, an Avery Joe’s Pilsner, and a Gran Habano Connecticut #1 cigar, and watched the world go by…
The Jura was sent to me by a Marketing company that sent a 100ml sample. I’m not sure, but I doubt that I can get it in Idaho. I’ve never seen it in the Liquor store before, and too bad, this was a very nice pour.
Its nose was fruity with a hint of smoke. It started out sweet with caramel and vanilla, then went into fruit, mostly pineapple, and some pear, then had a big warming finish with just a hint of smoke. I think of it as the peaty flavor that you get from many whiskys, but it wasn’t overdone like many of the Isleys can be, just a touch of it to let you know you are drinking single malt.
The thing that got me was the mouthfeel. It was room temp when I poured it, and as it sat and opened up more the viscosity continued to increase. At first it was a medium mouthfeel, with a touch of oil, but as time went on it thickened up to a creamy almost buttery mouthfeel. Not bad at all, in fact I liked it quite a bit.
All in all this was a very good dram of whisky, and one that I would recommend having again. I’m not too sure on particulars as far as what casks this was aged in. If I had to guess I would say sherry casks, due to the fruity flavors of this particular drink. If you can find it, I recommend picking one up. I’ve herad it is a bit spendy, so maybe for a special occasion.
-Don
Beer & Whiskey Brothers 
I was pretty impressed by it also when I tried it awhile back, but then again I’m a sucker for Isleys.
On another note, they finally started carrying Joe’s in Idaho? What do you think of it? It’s my favorite American Pilsner by far. 🙂
I liked the Jura 16 quite a bit, and given my history with scotch, that is quite a big recco. As far as the Joes…Just wait for tomorrow! 🙂
Don, not sure of Idaho’s law regarding the shipping and receiving of alcohol, but I found it online for about 43 quid from a UK mail order whisky shop I’ve used in the past. Their shipping is a bit pricey, but they have a huge selection and ship to US via DHL.
First of all how much is a Quid? Second of all, do you have a website link you could forward?
I will happily post the link. I wasn’t sure of the blog’s policy for outside links to businesses and didn’t wish to be rude. http://www.singlemaltsdirect.com/
A Quid is slang for 1 UK Pound, which is worth $1.64ish (depends on the day’s exchange rate). I was too lazy to go looking for the weird little “s” symbol and apparently lived in England too long.
That’s funny Scott. I think, you have a weird little “L” symbol for Pounds. Our keyboards over here have that weird little “s” symbol on them, so no searching needed. 🙂 So that is about $75 American, round numbers. That definitely puts it into the “Special Occasion” category for me. It is quite good however, and I have another sample of the 10 year old variety that I will try soon. It will be interesting to see how it compares. Oh, and thank you for the link. As long as you aren’t trying to sell products and do self promotion on the blog, Jim and I are perfectly fine with links, and frankly some of those self promotion links make it through too if it is related to what we are talking about so no worries.
I really did live over there too long. And I’ve been back stateside for almost three years. I didn’t even notice I called it a weird “s” thing instead of the weird little “l” thing.
As for the website, I got a bottle of the Balvenie 21 year for my brother’s recent nuptials and it took about a week to ten days from initial order to receipt, but I live on the East Coast. On the plus side, they had packaged it within an inch of its life. As you said, a “Special Occasion” bottle, but in theory, he’ll only get married this once. I’m interested to try the 16 year and look forward to hearing about the 10.
Islay?
Dear Don & Will, Jura is from the Isle of Jura.
Boom! Roasted!!
Not sure if Keith is right (googling is sooo tasking!), but I’m enjoying the fact that he thinks Don is wrong!
“Thinks Don is wrong”?
Just look at any map of Scotland and you’ll see that Jura is a separate island, neighbouring Islay (that’s Islay and not IslEy 😉 and right across the sound of Islay, so not far away, but I assure you it is definitely NOT Islay.
If you don’t believe me, then look at the picture of the bottle in this article. I’m sure it says “The Isle of Jura” and not “The Isle of Islay” 🙂
I believe I am the victim of a misunderstanding on your part, and bad grammar on mine (no big surprise on my part really). I never said that this was an Islay. I simply said it wasn’t overpeated like many Islays can be. I knew all along it was from the Isle of Jura, it says so right on the front of the bottle. So, yes I knoew it wasn’t from Islay, and I did make a comparison that could mislead the reader…nothing new here… 😉