Released to celebrate the Ardbeg space mission, this is a mix of 1990 Ardbeg from bourbon and Marsala casks, and it’s the latter which make the running from the start. Earthy, with blackberry and fruitcake, and sooty peatiness in the background. While there’s a medicinal/herbal note with water, the palate has a damp wood edge. Fortified wine can work with peat, but here there’s a clash between distillery character and the Marsala cask. Sadly, a disappointment.

Reviewed by: Dave Broom (Winter 2012)

Wood-smoked malt, a spirit aged in oak with fruitwood chips added makes for a distinctive, idiosyncratic whisky. Nose is warehouse reek, mellow fruitwood smoke, and sweet, light pipe tobacco, with a slight hint of cinnamon. Mouth is hot, but soft, with lots of malt and that unfamiliar flow of fruitwood smoke. Thin and edgy up front, but as the smoke spreads and the malt sweetens, it evolves. Finish is a bit abrupt.

Reviewed by: Lew Bryson (Winter 2012)

Yep, you read that right. A whopping 76.1% ABV. Belgian Owl has matured its whisky in warm and brightly lit warehouses so the spirit sort of cooks. You have to add water and add water and add water until…darn it, you've gone too far. If you do manage to get it right—at about 46%—it offers nothing extra to what you get from the 46% version. Too much like hard work and really not worth the effort.

Reviewed by: Dominic Roskrow (Winter 2012)

The malt was “lightly smoked” with a 60/40 mix of apple and cherry woods. It is very light in the nose, which gives a fruitbowl—apple, white grape, pear—topped with wet malt, and just a hint of that smoke. Very hot, as expected, but the smoke is more pronounced, with a creamy texture. Water brings out more malt, and notes of cocoa, ripe Red Delicious apple, and nuts…and a somewhat rough finish. Interesting, and mixable.

Reviewed by: Lew Bryson (Winter 2012)

Does this belong here, at 70% cane sugar and 30% corn/wheat? The process sure looks like whiskey, so we’ll let it slip in. The aroma’s sweet, but with a solvent rim to it. For 105 proof, this is pretty smooth stuff in the mouth. There are notes of melon and green corn, and a wet hint of fresh grass before the burner kicks on at the finish. It’s a hot end on this one, but not unpleasant.

Reviewed by: Lew Bryson (Winter 2012)

New make fruit—pear, stewed apple—and rye spice in a hot, clean nose. That’s pretty much what you get in the mouth, too, with some dry paper notes, and a sweet finish. For some reason, I really want to try mixing this with Dr. Pepper. This is definitely a mixing spirit, mountain-style.

Reviewed by: Lew Bryson (Winter 2012)

Berkshire Mountain Distillers uses locally grown corn here, aged on local oak and cherry wood. The nose is sweet and sharp, smelling of corn, grass, and tart cherries. Corn and ash dominate the hot, slippery mouth, with a finish that turns sweeter as it dwindles, with some faint fruit notes, but the heat is hard to overcome. If it were my corn, I’d put it into the bourbon instead; this is a bit thin.

Reviewed by: Lew Bryson (Winter 2012)