Great scotch
MANILA, Philippines – Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood.” So goes one of George Orwell’s immortal lines from his final masterpiece, 1984, the dystopian novel he wrote on the isolated Scottish isle of Jura in 1949. It was here that the author spent his last days, troubled with bouts of tuberculosis, penning the (proverbial) existence of Big Brother while perhaps enjoying his concluding drops of the land’s liquid gold — single-malt scotch — from a retreat that is so remote and rugged that it is, at once, tranquil and troubling.
“He literally called it the most ‘ungettable’ place in the planet,” says Jura Distillery brand manager Nastasha Crawford. “Wherever you are, you have to take about seven to eight modes of transport just to get there. The isle of Jura only has one pub, one road, and one distillery.”
On an island where there are 25 times more deer than people, the remaining Diurachs have managed to preserve three centuries’ worth of single-malt scotch production despite its twin-faced terrain of stormy and stony in the west and calm and idyllic in the east. And luckily, we don’t have to cross continents to have a taste of it, as the country’s biggest distiller is bringing it to our shores.
Jura Distillery, the island’s sole whisky distiller founded in 1823, is owned by Whyte & Mackay, the fifth largest whisky producer in the world. It was recently acquired by dynamic Filipino tycoon Andrew Tan and his Alliance Global Group, Inc. and Emperador Distillers in 2014, the latest of his shopping sprees for some of the planet’s most valued alcohol distilleries. And, with a tab of £430 million, Tan proves how Asians, much more the Filipinos, can afford to have a sip of the world’s finest, at any cost.
“It’s so remote and so comprised of one community that is single-minded in its pursuit of making the most amazing single-malt scotch,” Campbell notes, unlike its more popular neighboring island of Islay that is riddled with individual distillers. “And while it is an island, Jura’s flavor profiles are closer to that of its Highland counterparts, which is less peaty than the Islay whiskeys,” she explains. It is this “best of both worlds” quality that became the essential Jura spirit among scotch purists, and our most spirited businessman buying.
Jura Distillery has been recognized in the rest of the whisky-loving world by its four benchmark expressions: the lightly peated 10-year old Origin, the 16-year-old Diurach’s Own, the subtly smoky Superstition, and the heavily peated Prophecy, collectively earning the brand a Gold Quality Award at the 2006 Monde Selection. But the Scottish distiller now shifts its attention to a continent which, in recent years, has managed to craft supreme quality, “best in class” single-malt whiskeys of its own, reminding Asians that scotch could only come with a thick and heavy Gaelic accent.
“You kind of have to realize that whisky, in general, originated from Scotland,” Campbell says. “If I were to ask you, ‘Do you want to go down the street to have dinner with me, or would you rather appreciate me flying you somewhere exotic?’ Of course, you’d want the whole thing, because it’s the journey that counts.”
She leads me to the Jura Discovery tent, a liquor oasis at this year’s Great British Festival on BGC High Street, where Jura gave passersby a 15-minute tour of the island, its unsettling terrain found on the tarpaulin walls. But never mind the sights; everyone who flocked to the tent was after a swig of its single-malt scotch.
“Jura single-malt whisky is the only single-malt scotch distiller which features the range of sweet to smoky within its principal collection,” she continues. “I think that’s what makes it special, added to the character of our people, our history, and the duality of our island. It all reflects in our whisky.”
Jura Discovery is a single-malt trinity that captures the subtleties of quintessential Diurach scotch, “comprised of three uniquely crafted expressions which are different in flavor profile,” Campbell says. “It encapsulates the entire landscape of single-malt scotch whisky from sweet to smoky, that there is literally no one, I believe, who will not like anything.”
At first sip, I can immediately tell what she means. The 10-year-old Jura Origins embodies a light and delicate whisky, whose understated peatiness gives way to sweeter notes of apples and caramel.
The crowd favorite, on the other hand, is Jura Journey, which lends the refined nuances of peat, giving it a nutty taste complementing the sour hints of citrus. “It has that fleeting smokiness, like a bird that takes to flight.”
Campbell’s personal poison is Jura Discovery: “I like it peaty.” Its balanced body of smoke and spice gives it an air of dubiety and danger, much like the island’s left side, where the woodlands meet the angry, salty spray of the sea. She’s right, though: however dark and looming, it is a scotch that one can easily warm up to. I know I did.
Unlike the island, Jura Discovery is relatively approachable, priced at P1,550 for each 70 cl bottle. Or you can sample all three with the Jura Discovery Pack, with all three expressions in 200-ml bottles packed in one, for roughly P200 more. “It’s like the perfect starter kit. I have friends who don’t really drink whisky, or don’t know the difference between blended and single. I think giving it to them and letting them experience it for themselves is something that must happen at least once in their lives,” she shares.
Campbell is optimistic about the brand’s launch in the Philippines, Singapore, and mainland China. “There is a positive light, or a silver lining, being owned by a widely recognized Asian company,” she says. “People now are so discerning and they want something more. They don’t want to follow other people’s footsteps. They want to create their own journey, or write their own story. And this they can do with Jura.”
Jura Origin, Journey, and Destiny single-malt scotch, as well as the Jura Discovery Pack, are now available at The World’s Finest Liquor store in Resorts World Manila, and soon in supermarkets and bars in Metro Manila.
