Is it worth the price?
CARDHU 18 Years Old is a Speyside single malt Scotch from the Cardhu distillery, bottled at 18 years old. Tasters score it 4.7 out of 5 across 42 reviews. It is tracked at 3 retailers, ranging from €81.50 to €109.25, while the valuation model estimates a fair price of around €97.77. That is 1.02× the model estimate — almost exactly what its age, strength and house predict, with no meaningful brand premium. The estimate is fitted on age, bottling strength and the distillery's other prices; community ratings add no measurable signal to it, so this is not a quality judgement. Typical error is around ±65%, so read the verdict as indicative and trust it most at the extremes. Of the 4 Cardhu bottlings priced here, this is the weakest value.
Retailers tracked
| Retailer | Price |
|---|---|
| topdrinks | €81.50 |
| whisky.fr | €99.90 |
| thewhiskyshop | €109.25 |
How we got this number
The valuation model predicts a price from this bottling's inputs. The multiple is the actual market price divided by that prediction.
- Rating
- 4.74 / 5
- Age
- 18yo
- Region
- Speyside
- Distillery tier
- Budget Label only — set from the distillery’s median price, not used by the model.
- Predicted price
- €97.77
- Actual price (median)
- €99.90
- Multiple
- 1.02×
- Verdict band
- fair value (0.80× < … ≤ 1.20×)
Methodology estimate
The deterministic model from methodology.md: production cost per litre × bottle size, plus maturation cost per year, plus a cask premium, times an ABV factor — then multiplied by a quality grade summed across six 0–3 axes.
- Production (€0.14/cl × 70 cl)
- €9.80
- Maturation (18 × €1.20/year)
- €41.35
- Cask premium (undeclared)
- +€0.00
- × ABV factor
- ×1.00
- Cost floor
- €51.15
- Process distinctnessno declared distinctive practices2 / 3
- Cask provenancecask type not declared on bottle0 / 3
- Bottling integrity40.0% ABV; chill-filtration not disclosed; E150a caramel colouring not disclosed0 / 3
- OwnershipDiageo — independent or smaller group2 / 3
- Heritagefounded 1824 (202 years of operation)3 / 3
- Reputation4.7381/5 across 42 reviews1 / 3
- Quality score
- 8 / 18
- Quality multiplier
- ×1.67
- Intrinsic value
- €85.25
- Actual price (median)
- €99.90
- Multiple
- 1.17×
- Verdict band
- fair value
Maturation context
Speyside · rolling 12 months: 781 mm at Delnashaugh (8 km). Scotland N rolling 12-month rainfall2,298 mm, +33.30% vs 1995-2024 median.
Other bottlings from Cardhu
- CARDHU 12 Years Old €33.15 · 0.77×
- CARDHU 15 Years Old €51.80 · 0.89×
- CARDHU Amber Rock €34.95 · 0.96×