In my first review of Jura I mentioned that a rebrand was on the way. I was reviewing the old version of the 10 year old in that review which you can get to at Jura 10 – Origin

Today, I have come across a sample of one of the new whiskies the insanely named “Seven Wood”. The name is to do with the seven types of cask the whisky has been hopping around in during its probably fairly short life. Does any of this do anything good for the whisky and justify buying a bottle?

The Dram

The new release is bottled at 42% ABV with fake colouring and filtration has been done. It is from Whyte & MacKays Richard Paterson’s stable of releases which involves a lot of random casks and copious amounts of water in the bottling process. The seven woods if you were interested ( you aren’t) includes, American white oak, limousin, tronçais, allier, vosges, bertranges and jupilles. So ex-bourbon, wine, sherry and cognac casks in other words which are a lot of threads in anyone’s book I would say.

Except they aren’t ex anything. When we read about the wood types instinctively we see these as all holding something else before the whisky was poured in. In this case though they are all virgin woods which were used. The intrinsic flavours in the wood itself brought in the flavours shown in the image above. Or so the marketing department at Jura wants us to believe.

Two bottle sizes are available at 350ml and 700ml for £35 and £60 respectively which is a lot of money. Furthermore, they are competing in a very grounded market at that price point which has a lot of well known, well regarded competitors fighting for your money. I would be interested to know how the sales figures are going actually to see if it will last out the year as an ongoing release. The release is now available in ASDA in the uk which suggests they are attempting to ship volume via loss leading incentives.

Tasting Notes

Colour – orange glow

Nose – The floral peat is quite noticeable alongside a fresh sea breeze. Apricot jam, syrupy apples, pears along with strawberries make for quite a sophisticated island picnic. The mood will change in time though to be more grassy, boggy and murky. Overall a very pleasant and interesting nose.

Palate – The first taste though is insipid and disappointing. The flavours will build though and give the similar brine and fruit notes. The texture is the most disappointing aspect though with no texture and lots of prickly heat and fire throughout.

Finish – The finish is so short it almost doesn’t exist as a thing. There is more heat and fire with the almost bowmore-esque style peat notes in the finish.

Final Thoughts

The Jura seven wood is young whisky which while it might have seen the inside of seven different types of wood none have imparted much flavour and none have been able to cover up the holes in the underlying spirit. I like the coastal peat influence and especially the nose which is lovely and fragrant. The rest however, is deeply flawed technically and confused in construction.