Jura Seven Wood, NAS, 40% ABV

I had been curious to try this relatively new release from Jura, a distillery with which I have had a love hate relationship for some time now, but for which I always hold out hope as they do put out some very nice expressions at times (see 16 Years Aged Diurachs Own). Opportunity knocked at Ardnamutchan Restaurant in Glasgow, which had the Seven Wood as a featured malt during a visit in early Fall 2019.

The color is a bit more pale than one would expect from Jura, given the distillery’s propensity to go overboard with E150 (the caramel coloring permitted by the SWA). Natural oils are present and legs linger surprisingly long on the glass.

The nose opens up after a few minutes in the glass. Subtle, not very much wood, light white pepper, soft undertones of white fleshed summer stone fruit (white peaches, nectarines, apricots) and pale honey.

Mouthfeel is very light, not delivering on the oils expected by the eyeballing of the glass referenced above.

Palate has a wee bit of pepper, honeydew melon, and orange zest.

Surprisingly little wood.

The finish is very short and not at all memorable.

I had higher hopes for this expression, given my fondness for multi-casked whiskies. Sadly, this dram, while not at all unpleasant, did not deliver much flavor, making it an an easily forgettable whisky. Jura is pumping out a lot of product in the “premium” range (price points of $65 up), but if the expressions continue to be low ABV and don’t deliver bigger flavors than this, I feel they will achieve the irrelevance that many writers already assign them.