My first Cardhu review on the blog I think, and it’s about time. Cardhu does not release a lot of single malt expressions, and it is mostly remembered for the infamous “pure malt” incident in which Cardhu due to shortage of stocks bottled a pure malt (mixed with other Speyside malts) under the same brand and label, which vexed whisky geeks and its competitors. it had to remove that packaging in 2003 and repackage it under a different looking package and that was the end of that, only to completely remove the “Pure Malt” version in 2004. A real fiasco, which is still echoing in the single malt world. This Cardhu was distilled in 1984 and finished in an Octave cask (a small cask) for a few months to add complexity and flavors then bottled at CS. I have to admit that Cardhu is not very big in Israel and I have not tried many of those (In addition to that not many expressions of Cardhu are widely available). I was pleasantly surprised wince I like this one very much.
Cardhu Octave by Duncan Taylor 1984 , 27yo , £154
Nose : A lot of caramel candy. Werther’s Original candy. Creamy. Warm wood. Sawdust. Vanilla and coconut. Hint of peat. Very creamy.
Palate: creamy stuff continues. Crème caramel. Fudge. Nuts. Sweet with chocolate and mocha. Rich sweet almost desert like. some cinnamon spice.
Finish: Crème caramel. Wood. Cinnamon.
This is a Wonderfully creamy malt, with a lot of caramel candy, wood and vanilla. a great after meal dram in the winter, or just a desert dram to go well with chocolate dishes. Well done Duncan Taylor. Some would argue it’s too creamy and caeamely, but I really liked that in this dram.
Score: 89/100
Official sample provided by Duncan Taylor & Co.