TASTING JEFFERSON’S OCEAN. Our local liquor store, the Rowayton Wine Shop, had two bottles of Jefferson’s Ocean. I bought one and left one for somebody else. The Jefferson’s Ocean ad said that the time at sea had “added salty, caramel elements”. This review by Elizabet Gunnison Dunn says that the original experiment by Jefferson had resulted in “a salty quality typically found in Islay Scotch, combined with a rumlike brown-sugar sweetness”.
Our tasting, by inexpert palates, found that Jefferson’s Ocean does have a distinctive flavor. Annalisa said: “I like it a lot.” I agreed.
According to Elizabeth Dunn, the whiskey we were drinking was seven or eight years old and had been at sea for seven or eight months. If seven or eight months can provide a distinctive flavor, then this is strong evidence that the “wind-harried” weather of Islay can affect the taste of Laphroaig.