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Jura
Founded
1810
Region
Island
Status
Operational
Company
Production type
Single Malt
Production capacity
2,400,000 litres per year
Former name
Craighouse,
Small Isles,
Caol nan Eilean
Jura is a malt whisky distillery of the Scottish island of the same name. It was founded in 1810 by Archibald Campbell and operated under a variety of names until 1901 when poor economic conditions forced it to close. Its remote location and lack of direct transport links made it a difficult site to make profitable and it remained closed for these reasons until 1960 when it was re-opened to provide employment opportunities to the island's dwindling population.
Today the distillery is part of the Alliance Global Group and run by its Whyte & Mackay division in Scotland. Having initially been re-opened by Charles Mackinlay & Co to service its blending needs, the distillery's standard production is a non-peated single malt, however some peated production also now takes place.
Despite being acquired by Scottish & Newcastle Breweries before production had recommenced at Jura, the distillery's license was assigned to Charles Mackinlay & Co and it launched the Isle of Jura single malt brand in 1974. The initial offering was a sole 8-year-old, with a 10-year-old replacing it once sufficient stock had been aged. At the time, the same bottle shape was used by Mackinlay's for its Legacy blend and its Glen Mhor brand. Its has since become synonymous with Jura however, and variation of it is still used to this day.
The brand remained largely unchanged following the acquisition of Mackinlay-McPherson by Invergordon Distillers, although some premium releases were made available as part of its The Stillman's Dram series and the core range expanded to include a 10-, 16- and 21-year-old. The lightly peated Superstition was then launched in 2002 before a significant rebranding a few years later saw the "Isle of" dropped from the distillery name. The first heavily peated expression, Prophecy, was released in 2009 followed by the renaming of the classic 10-year-old as Origin.
Following a relaunch in 2018, the current Jura core range is still headed up by the long-serving 10-year-old (now nameless again), and a 12-, 18- and 21-year-old. These are joined by non-age statements called Bourbon Cask, Journey and Seven Wood alongside various cask-finished expressions.
Current owner
2014-present
2007-2014
2003-2007
2001-2003
1997-2001
1993-1997
1988-1993
1985-1988
1960-1985
Jura Distillery
Craighouse
Isle of Jura
PA60 7XT
Scotland
Active brands
Single Malt
