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Cardhu, Diageo's best-selling single-species Scottish whiskey, was originally founded in 1811 by the infamous whiskey smuggler John Cumming. The Cardhu Distillery lies high on the northern banks of the River Spey in Moraytown and rises above the impressive Ben Rinnes Mountains. John received a license for the distillery a year after the enactment of the Alcohol Sales Control Act in 1823, ending its illegal operation.

Cardhu was bought for £ 20,500 in 1893 by John Walker and Sons, who later became suppliers for Johnnie Walker's famous mixes. In 1930, he bought the distillery Distillers Company Ltd, which later became part of the Diageo group. Today, Diageo uses the vast majority of Cardhu's alcohol in his Johnnie Walker blends, and less than a third matures and is bottled as a single-species.

After the huge demand for Cardhu Scotch whiskey and the subsequent difficulties in satisfying this demand, Diageo mixed Cardhu malt with malt from other distilleries and named this whiskey Cardhu Pure Malt. This has provoked heated debate about the definitions of "single-species" and "blend" and what was to be considered as "pure single-species" whiskey. Today, there is only one independent product from Signatory, although there is a wide range of single-species whiskeys, as well as pure single-species Cardhu Pure Malt, which is said to contain Glendullan whiskey.