Nantou (Omar)

Taiwan's other whisky maker belongs to the state: the Taiwan Tobacco & Liquor Corporation turned part of its Nantou winery over to malt whisky in 2008, quietly assembling Scottish-style pot stills amid the tea plantations and fruit orchards of the island's mountainous heart. Its Omar single malts — the name is Gaelic for 'amber' — began winning international medals within a few years, and the distillery's masterstroke is entirely local: finishing whisky in casks that previously held TTL's own lychee and plum liqueurs, a perfume no other distillery on earth can bottle.