It starts with some lavender which quickly fades away, then floral and tropical fruits like passionfruit, pineapple, guave, all layered in honey. It’s like an explosion of fragrances! Later on I get some green apples which fade away at some point. In the end the red fruits appear with some bubblegum in there. I love this! Tropical fruits and honey sweetness.

Tropical fruits, the taste lives up to the expectation! A thick honey sweetness, if that makes any sense, mixed with some red fruits. This is followed by white pepper, cinnamon and cloves. The wood impact is there but this is all very well layered. Really nice, something that I can enjoy for quite some time.

The finish is very long! Sweet tropical fruits and honey. It’s not overly complex which is weird as the taste gives me a very nice layered flavour. The finish comes down to plain fruity sweetness.

This is definitely the sweet one; an abundance of fruit and honey elements. It’s hard to judge which one is best, as they are both very very good. But I think this one is my favourite, it’s just a little more fruity than the other Speyside 1973.

Fruit and oak and fresh ginger. Pink grapefruit, ripe apples, beeswax, honey and varnish. It explodes in the glass, doesn't need to breathe at all. Pine sap, mint and pine needles make an appearance as well.

Lemon peel, honey, grapefruit, some bitter oranges even. Also ginger, a hint of black pepper. Some soft tobacco notes and a hint of wood polish. Yes, of course there's oak, but it's light and lovely and in balance.

Long, with oranges and subtle wood spices.

These two new Speyside 1973s from Archives are in a league of their own. An abundance of fruit, a healthy oak influence and lovely sweet honey and beeswax notes.