The current Cardhu / Cardow distillery isn't the 'original' one.
In 1872 Elizabeth Cumming (John Cumming's daughter-in-law) decided
to build a new distillery from scratch on an adjacent piece of property.
Cardow was extended in 1887 and purchased in 1893 by John Walker
and Sons Ltd. who merged with DCL just a few decades later in 1925.
Even today, Cardhu is a key component of the Johnnie Walker blends.

The Cardhu distillery, then known as Cardow, was officially founded in
1824 by John Cumming, a farmer who allegedly had been involved with
illegal distillation at the site for at least a decade before 'going legit'.
Later, in 1839, John's son Lewis took over the reigns at the distillery.

Cardhu has never been a very 'high profile' single malt, but I have to admit I have a bit of a soft spot for it. One reason is quite superficial; I love the look & feel of the bottle. Around the year 2000 more and more nicely designed bottles appeared on the market, but when I started my voyage of discovery through maltland in the early 1990's there really weren't that many other attractive bottles available. With the notable exception of Balvenie and Bowmore, most other (official) single malts came in straight, dull bottles. Sure, some labels looked nice, but as far as the 'overall package' was concerned the shelves of the average liquorist were hardly 'a feast for the eyes' during the 1990's.

Although Cardhu wasn't one of the big names in maltland, Diageo evoked the wrath of anoraks worldwide when they launched a 'new' Cardhu in 2003: 'Cardhu Pure Malt'. That's correct; this was a vatted malt - initially released in France, Spain, Greece and Portugal. Diageo explained they had no choice because those 'latino's' simply drank too much of the stuff, but after loads of bad publicity the 'old' Cardhu was brought back.

Bottlings of Cardhu are not hard to come by - at least if you want the 12yo OB.
There has been a bottling in UD's 'Rare Malts' series, but independent bottlings are very scarce.
That's why I haven't actually sampled that many different expressions of Cardhu so far.
Here are my notes on several different batches of the 12yo, as well as a few IB's.

Cardhu 12yo (86 Proof, OB, Ivory Label, 100% Unblended Pot Still, NY Import, Bottled +/- 1985)
Nose: Light and a little grainy. Maybe some faint honey notes? Malty but not too expressive.
Taste: Starts quite sharp, mellowing out in the centre and becoming quite bitter in the finish.
Score: 72 points - but I should point out that Serge (80) and Olivier (78) liked it better.

Cardhu 12yo (40%, OB, 70cl, Bottled +/- 1994)
Nose: A little sharp and grainy, but it has something I've always found easy to recognize.
It's those little yellow chemical banana-candy things. The nose developed quite nicely and slowly.
Taste: In this case I unfortunately neglected to make proper notes on the taste during this session
Score: 73 points - just a tad below average, but very easily drinkable. And I love the bottle...

Cardhu 12yo (40%, OB, 50cl, Bottled +/- 1997)
Nose: A bit sharp in the nose. Malty. Distinct aroma of yellow banana-candy 'hard foam'.
Taste: Overpowering bitterness is about all there is to tell. Otherwise: tastes like whisky...
Score: 72 points - if it had tasted as good as it smelled it would have received some more points.

Cardhu 12yo (40%, OB, 100cl, Bottled +/- 2000)
Nose: Light, as always, but perhaps just a little bit maltier? Hey, could it be caramelised?
Not a lot of development, and this time I couldn't find the banana I found in earlier batches.
Taste: On the palate it started soft, became grainier and maltier in the centre and bitter in the finish.
Score: 71 points - roughly in the same league as earlier batches, as far as I could tell.

Cardhu/Cardow 13yo 1987/2000 (56.9%, Cadenhead's, Bourbon, 318 Bottles)
Nose: A soft maltiness. Smooth but not very distinctive. Tea. Faint organics. Enjoyable.
It picks up a slight nose prickle with time. A good malt that lacks a little personality.
Taste: Sweet start, growing maltier first and then bitter towards the finish. Solid.
Heavy course brown bread - very distinctive. Not quite sweet enough in the finish for me.
Score: 80 points - one of the best Cardhu's I ever tried, but I'm sure the high proof helps.

Cardhu 22yo 1982/2005 (57.8%, OB, 3000 Bottles)
Nose: Sweet & grainy; a bit like Irish whiskey. Veggy, prickly in the back of the nose. Hint of dust.
Taste: Sweet, dusty & fruity start, big dry centre. Oldfashioned cinnamon sweets. Dry. Liquorice.
Score: 80 points - not terribly complex (and not too much development) but very drinkable.
Two classes above the standard 12yo OB, that's for sure - but that's to be expected at this age.
Although this is a good dram, it suggests that they never paid much attention to wood at Cardhu.

Cardhu 27yo 1973/2000 (60.02%, UDRM, Bottled October 2000)
Nose: Much 'richer' than the old 12yo OB, but I guess that's not surprising at this strength.
There's even a hint of peat or something coastal, but the nose flattens out surprisingly fast.
Taste: it showed an unexpected hint of smoke and was quite dry. You can't taste the age.
Score: 79 points - to me, this falls just short of 'recommendable' territory - too bad.
Further proof for my theory that Cardhu might have neglected to pay enough attention to wood.
Since the majority of the malt was produced for the JW blends, maybe they wanted consistency?

Check out my Track Record for a complete and up-to-date overview of all 'siplings' I've tried.
 
 
 

In 1960/1961 Cardow was rebuilt; the number of stills expanded from four to six.
That was also the time it became available (again) as a bottled single malt whisky.
The official name of the distillery was changed from Cardow to Cardhu around 1980.
Since 1986 Cardhu is owned by UD, formerly part of the Guiness Group, now Diageo.

Of course, the reason for the public outrage wasn't so much the fact that Cardhu disappeared as a single malt
(by 2003 malt lovers worldwide were spoilt for choice after the lean years that were the 1990's), but that the
new 'vatted' bottling was virtually indistinguishable from the single malt. The fact that this could 'blur the lines'
between both categories initially seemed to upset the 'anoraks' more than the 'watchdogs' at the SWA (Scotch
Whisky Accociation), but they eventually woke up and took the matter up with Diageo.
The matter was eventually resolved by the return of the 'old' Cardhu in 2005.

Trivia about Cardhu:   The name Cardhu means 'Black Rock' in Gaelic.