Cardhu is a distillery at Knockando on Speyside, licensed in 1824 on Cardow farm, where John and Helen Cumming had made illicit whisky since 1811.1,2,3 Elizabeth Cumming built a new distillery in 1884 and 1885, and in 1893 sold it to John Walker & Sons, the first distillery that firm bought.1,4,5 It took the name Cardhu in 1981, and Diageo has owned it since 1997.4,6,7
In 1811 John and Helen Cumming took a 19-year lease on Cardow farm.1,2,7 In 1816 John was convicted three times for malting and distilling privately, though it was probably Helen who worked the stills.6 After the Excise Act of 1823, the Cummings were among the first to buy a licence, and John took one out in 1824.1,3,8 In 1832 their son Lewis wrote to a merchant that his still was of the smallest kind and that he used no fuel but peat.6 John died in 1839, and by then Lewis was in charge.7 When Lewis died in 1872, his widow Elizabeth took over.6,7
Sources disagree: when it opened. This page uses 1824.
In 1884 and 1885 Elizabeth built a new distillery on adjoining land, and its higher output led Johnnie Walker and Sons to buy much of it.1,4,7 In 1886 DCL, one of Cardow's chief customers, tried to buy it, but Elizabeth refused.6 In March 1886 the old stills were sold for £120 to William Grant for Glenfiddich, the distillery he was building in Dufftown.4,6 Alfred Barnard's 1887 book describes two pot stills heated by furnaces in the new still house, six washbacks, a cement worm tub, and a kiln fired with peat.9 Judges found the new spirit like the old, which Barnard called of the thickest and richest kind and well suited to blending.9
Johnnie Walker's first distillery
In 1893 Elizabeth sold Cardow to John Walker & Sons for £20,500 and a board seat for her son John, and the family kept running it.1,5,7 In 1899 Walker spent £7,000 doubling production, and the stills went from two to four.6,7 Whiskypedia says the original spirit was heavy, from small stills, and the present Cardhu emerged only with these larger stills.6,7 In 1902 shell-and-tube condensers were added.6 John Walker & Sons joined the Distillers Company in 1925.4,7
Rebuilt and renamed
In 1960 the still house, mash house, and tun room were rebuilt.4,6 The stills went from four to six in 1960, though Wikipedia dates the extra stills to 1970.4,7 In 1970 steam coils were put in to heat the stills.4 A 1977 survey by J R Hume recorded mainly rubble buildings, unusually 3-storey bonded stores, and a 3-storey, 10-bay range of maltings with a single kiln.1,3 In 1981 the distillery's name changed from Cardow to Cardhu.6 Ownership passed to United Distillers in 1986, when Guinness bought The Distillers Company.4
Next: Rebuilt and renamed, The pure malt years, Speyside Home of Johnnie Walker, How Cardhu is made
In 2003, with sales projected to outstrip the distillery's capacity, Cardhu became a vatted malt, a mix of malts from different distilleries; Whiskypedia dates this to 2002.4,7,10 The distillery's name was briefly changed back to Cardow, until an industry backlash led to Cardhu Pure Malt being withdrawn in 2004.4,7,10
Sources disagree: when this period ran. This page uses 2003.
On 17 June 2021 Diageo reopened Cardhu to visitors as the Speyside Home of Johnnie Walker, part of a £185 million investment.5,11 Helen Cumming's flag, once used to warn illicit distillers of the excise man, flies above the distillery again.5,11
How Cardhu is made
Its water comes from the Mannoch Hill springs and Lyne Burn.2,4,7 Its malt is lightly peated.2,7 Fermentation lasts around 75 hours, which Diageo says gives the whisky its fruity profile.2,7 Sugary water from the mash ferments in 10 washbacks, 8 of wood and 2 of steel.7 It has 6 stills, 3 of them wash stills for the first distillation.4,7 The stills have a plain shape and are heated by steam.7 Shell and tube condensers turn the vapour back into spirit.7 Whiskypedia calls the spirit intensely grassy, from clear wort (sugary water from the mash), long fermentations, slow distillation, and condensers run warm.7
