Jura Whisky

Jura is a distillery from the Hebridean island of Jura. This is sandwiched between the Kintyre Peninsula on the Scottish mainland and the famous whisky isle of Islay. It is one of the biggest single malts in the UK and regularly features in the Top 5 for sales. Jura's success has grown over the last decade. The brand's consistent quality and marketing of life on the island, and the distillery's role within it, have been at the heart of this worldwide surge in popularity.

Jura is known for its lightly smoky style of single malt. This smoke is gentle and soft, rather than punchy and heavy like some of those from the nearby island of Islay. This lightly smoky style is achieved by marrying non-peated and peated whiskies together after maturation. The spirit has a malty and medium-bodied feel. This works well with a variety of cask types and this is shown in the core range.

The core range consists of three no age statements - the French Oak, Journey and Seven Wood (this is a marriage of seven different cask types) - and four carrying an age. These are the 10, 12, 18 and 21 year olds. The 18 year old features part-maturation in ex-red wine casks and the 21 year old has been finished in virgin American white oak barrels. These are supplemented by special limited editions and rare vintage releases, plus four expressions produced for their travel retail market series.

Jura is a difficult place to make whisky. Everything has to be brought over via two ferries from the mainland. This includes the malted barley, barrels and any other equipment. The mash tun is currently running 28 mashes per week. The mash is fed to one of six stainless steel washbacks and fermentation is 54 hours. There are two pairs of copper pot stills. These are the second tallest in Scotland, only behind those at Glenmorangie.

Jura spirits are non-peated, although for two weeks each year they use malted peat to 45ppm. PPM is phenol parts per million and is the measurement used for peat smoke levels in the barley. It is this which gives the whisky its smoky aroma and flavour. The annual capacity is 2.4 million litres.

The Jura distillery was founded in 1810 by Archibald Campbell. It is located in the village of Craighouse on the Hebridean island of Jura. It was originally named as Small Isles distillery. This is in reference to the numerous small islands and rocks in Craighouse Bay that the distillery overlooked. Small Isles operated for ninety years before closing in 1901. It would not reopen for over sixty years later.

In 1960, two local landowners - Tony Riley-Smith and Robin Fletcher - decided to resurrect the distillery and bring whisky making back to Jura. The original buildings were in poor repair so the decision was taken to build a new one on the same site. Renowned distillery architect William Delmé-Evans was commissioned to design it and oversee building works. Only then was it renamed as Jura distillery. The first new spirit was produced in 1963.

Thirty years later Whyte & Mackay purchased Jura in 1993. They remain the owners today. Whyte & Mackay have since become part of the Emperador Inc. group in 2014. It is under Whyte & Mackay's ownership that the distillery and brand of Jura have flourished. They have taken it from an obscure island single malt brand to become one of the world's best selling and most individual Scotch whiskies.