Jura distillery, built in the classic 1960s style, features large rooms and a smooth flow from a semi-lauter tun, stainless steel washbacks, and a spacious stillhouse with very tall (7.7m) stills that have a combined capacity of over 20,000 liters. It was clearly not designed just for local consumption. The distillery’s relatively short fermentation process gives the whisky a background rigidity, meaning it requires time or active casks to fully develop its flavors.
Peated malt was first introduced in the late 1990s, run for a small period each year, and was used in some expressions either blended with unpeated malt or on its own. Since 2018, Jura’s core range has had a subtly smoky character due to the inclusion of a small amount of peated spirit in the blends.
Despite Jura’s sparse population, the island has an intriguing distilling history. In the 18th century, islanders made spirit from rowan berries, and illicit distillation took place. The island had a legal distillery in Craighouse in 1810, licensed to Archibald Campbell, although there’s debate about the existence of a legal distillery in Lagg. Over time, the distillery went through various names, including Craighouse, Small Isles, Caol nan Eilean, and Jura, changing ownership without significant fame. It eventually closed in 1901 during whisky’s first major sales slump, largely due to the high cost of operating on a remote island with no direct transport to the mainland (ferry traffic still goes via Islay).
The distillery remained closed for over six decades, until 1963 when island landowners Robin Fletcher and Tony Riley-Smith decided to reopen it, primarily as a way to stem the decline of the island’s population. Financial backing from Leith-based blender Charles Mackinlay & Co led to the construction of a modern distillery, designed by William Delme-Evans, which was expanded in 1978 to its current size. In 1985, Invergordon Distillers acquired Mackinlay, and the firms were later folded into Whyte & Mackay.
Jura began selling single malt in 1974, and its range steadily expanded. Peating started with smoky whisky being included in the no-age Superstition brand, launched in 2002, followed by the release of 100% peated Prophecy in 2009. In 2018, Jura underwent a significant revamp, introducing a new range with a lightly smoky character, including the Jura Journey NAS, 10-, 12-, and 18-year-old expressions, and Jura Seven Wood. Additional expressions, such as Jura Time and Jura Tide, have since been launched in travel retail.
