When you are in the aisles of your local liquor haunt or grocery store, and you're on the hunt for some scotch, does it matter to you where it comes from?

If the assumption is that great Champagne comes from the Champagne region of France, than you must believe that great Scotch Whiskey comes from Scotland, right??

What if I were to tell you that there is a scotch, single malt, which beat all Scottish-made whiskeys in a blind tasting by a panel of British experts?

In this piece from the New York Times, we learn about American Malted Whiskeys, namely Balcones Texas Single Malt.

Balcones Distillery is based in Waco, Texas, and is the first American-made whiskey to win the competition in its five-year history.

This reminds me of the tale of the "Judgment of Paris" from back in 1976. Then, a panel of French wine judges conducted a blind tasting organized by British wine merchant Steven Spurrier, awarded its highest mark to a '73 Stags Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon.

Many in the wine industry regard this as the "tipping point" of how the California wine industry took the world by storm, opening the door to people understanding that great wine can be made in places outside of France.

The Times story discusses the state of the growing American malt whiskey industry. In Wisconsin, there are at least three distilleries which produce whiskey: Death's Door Spirits, Great Lakes Distillery and Yahara Bay Distillers.

If you're a fan of single malt scotch whiskey, give a local distiller a chance. It's the same way you'd want to buy local for this.