Edradour 1973 Connoisseurs Choice (Gordon & MacPhail)

Another beautiful Edradour from the 1970s, bottled by Gordon & MacPhail, released under their prestigious "Connoisseurs Choice" vintage whiskies collection. At the time, Edradour was the smallest of all scottish distilleries, with only 2 workers who produced roughly 12 barrels a week. This one has a burnished gold color, bottled at 40%abv. On the nose it starts with some red dehydrated fruits with a powerful pepper spice. Chocolate cocoa powder. Cheap church wine, white chocolate. Actually it smells quite good: Grapy and really winey; blackberry jam. There is a beautiful mix between red fruit syrup and white chocolate. I could actually nose this all day. The blackberry jam intensifies on the second aroma, there is definitively some red apples in there. Perfect score. On the palate, a little straightforward but fairly good. Red fruits, sawdust. On the second sip i got red apples, sider and fruitspice. It tastes like a calvados or another apple liquor. Aftertaste has that old whisky style, a little rough on the edges with lots of sawdust and slight red fruitiness. After a second sip, the aftertaste was delicious; tobacco, hay, sawdust and a overall dry finish which is very rewarding. Hazelnut and waffer. Overall, this was a lot better than the 1972 expression, it felt more rounded and well crafted. It takes a little while to fully open on the palate and aftertaste, because the nose is just incredible from the moment you uncork it. My score for this wonderful single malt is 93 over 100.