Scotland, Speyside: Single malt whisky through the producing distilleries: history, making, production and tasting notes

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Cardhu (cardow)

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The distillery

Cardhu (Cardow) distillery
Cardhu Distillery
Knockando, Aberlour
Banffshire AB38 7RY
+44 1340 872 550
Owner: United Distillers & Vintners (Diageo)
Creation date 1824

John Cumming converted the familial farm called Cardow into a distillery round 1810. He used the barley produced by the farm and he produced his own peat. The proximity of the river Spey ant the surrounding hills were assets for a distillery. He began as a moonshine distiller.
The hills were a place of safety in case the excise men would "visit" him. The controls were frequent, and John's wife, Helen Cumming helped her husband with a successfully stratagem. She used to receive them very well, and to invite them for dinner. When they arrived, she put a red flag behind the barn. As long this flag was visible, John knew the excise men were still present, and he waited before coming back to the farm.
In 1824, after the promulgation of the Excise Act, John decided to purchase a licence for the production of his whisky. This made made marketing of his spirit quite easier.
During the 19th century, the distillery was rebuild 3 times. John Cumming's daughter in law, Elisabeth took the management of the distillery in 1876 and contributed to its success.
She built a new distillery near the farm, and sold stills to a certain William Grant, who was on the point to found Glenfiddich.
As most of the distilleries, Cardhu closed during the second world war.
Renewed in 1960, the numbers of stills grew from 4 to 6.
The distillery was called "Cardow Distillery" since 1981. The Cardhu malt is currently one of the best sellers world-wide.
About 30% of the production is sold as single malt, the remaining entering in blends. Cardhu is the basis of the Johnnie Walkers blends, Red, Black, Green and Blue labels.
The commercial success is so great currently that it was at the origin of many discussions in the whisky world in 2003. UDV is not able anymore to satisfy all the demand for Cardhu malt, and decided to market vatted malt instead of single malt without changing the packaging. The other producers were furious, and after lots of discussions, UDV decides to change the colour of the label of Cardhu Vatted malt to avoid confusion for the customers, and depreciation of the image of single malt.

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The whisky

The sites below offer tasting notes for this distillery. Please click on the logo to access this notes.

France whisky-distilleries www.whisky-distilleries.info
Passionnés du malt passionnesdumalt.free.fr
Comaw Club o. mosellan des amateurs de whisky
English whisky-distilleries www.whisky-distilleries.info
Whiskyfun www.whisky-fun.com
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Geography

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Speyside

Speyside Map

The Speyside area is situated at the North of the Cairngorm mountain and goes to the Moray firth. It is delimited by two rivers: the Findhorn at the West side and the Deveron on the East side.
The area is named after the river Spey. Most of the distilleries take their water in one of its affluents; the Fiddich, the Livet or the Avon.
About sixty distilleries from Speyside are described on this site.

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Click on the map for a list of the distilleries of the area, on the title for further information
about the Speyside area, and if you want to make an "alphabetical journey" through the area, please
click on one of the pagode roofs, according to the direction you want to follow

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Photos of the distillery

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