Archives; known for the labels with a fish on it, but luckily there is nothing fishy about their whiskies. 😉 Most of the time, I really enjoy these releases and I’ve been able to taste a few of them. This time I received a few samples of their new Starfish series, which will be released today. Whiskybase selected two whiskies from an undisclosed Speyside distillery from a very good year; 1973. Recently, I have seen that there are many excellent releases of undisclosed Speyside whiskies, so I was looking forward to taste these two.

This Speyside has matured in a fino sherry butt and is bottled at 46,5% ABV.

Speyside 1973 Archives tasting notes:

Nose: 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.

Taste: 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.

Finish: 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.

Thanks to Whiskybase for the sample and the picture.