Whisky Focus - Jura One For The Road 22 Year Old

Jura marks Willie Cochrane's retirement with Jura One For The Road 22 year old Pinot Noir finish limited edition.

Jura is marking the retirement of their distillery manager Willie Cochrane with the release of a special limited edition expression appropriately named Jura One For The Road which is a 22 year old single malt.

Willie's career at Jura began 39 years ago back in 1977, when he first arrived on Jura with the intention of staying for only one year. Though he initially had little knowledge of whisky, he was offered a job in the distillery and soon proved his talent for crafting extraordinary single malts.

Over the next 39 years, Willie became a celebrated part of the very fabric of Jura, renowned in the industry for his friendliness and expertise and earning prestigious titles for the whisky. A true ambassador for the brand, Willie has welcomed thousands of visitors from across the globe to the distillery, guiding them through the quality craftsmanship and dedication that goes into producing each cask of Jura.

Jura One For The Road has been finished in ‘Pinot Noir’ wine casks which should add a smoothness, ripe silky tannins and some juicy red summer fruit to the single malt whisky which should make for a very good expression of Jura which from my experience is a whisky which peaks around this age. Hopefully this is the case here as I haven't had the chance to taste it yet and the info Jura has sent me makes no mention of what we should expect to find in the bottle. Perhaps a sign of the whisky times we are in now, were a whisky is released as "collectable" because of the story behind it and its limited numbers rather than becoming collectable because of the quality of the whisky in the bottle. As I said Jura does get good around this age so hopefully this is a good one which would be very fitting to mark Willie's farewell.

As Willie bids farewell to Jura and hands over the reigns to newly promoted Graham Logan, a former Jura Mash/ Stillman who has worked at Willie’s side for over two decades he embark on a farewell European tour, inviting a Europe wide community of honorary Diurachs (the Gaelic term for Jura’s community) to enjoy a final dram with him, during a whistle-stop tour around the continent to introduce the final Jura expression bottled in his care.

From 17th Sept – 1st October 2016, Willie will visit Brussels, Lyon, Hamburg, Paris, Cologne and Stockholm to meet whisky fans and conduct tastings of the limited edition, One For The Road expression.

Willie commented: "One of the perks of my job is meeting people who have travelled to the island from far and wide to share their appreciation for whisky with me and the team at the distillery. Now that I have the opportunity, I can think of no better way to repay the favour than releasing one final expression - one for the road - to share with them."

Jura One For The Road 22 year old Pinot Noir finish was bottled at 47% ABV and is a limited release of 5000 bottles worldwide, with a RRP of £120 it will be available to purchase from specialist whisky retailers such as The Whisky Exchange
 

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