The Belgian Owl, based in Hesbaye region of Belgium, is making quite a name for itself, with awards from the likes of Jim Murray, being awarded the Liquid Gold Award four years in a row, as well as receiving the Grand Gold Award from the Monde selection, also four years in a row.

It does well to look beyond the borders of Scotland for good whisky.

While countries like Taiwan and Belgium may only have one distillery, there are countries such as Switzerland and Norway who are storming ahead with their whisky production.

Switzerland has about 20 or more distilleries with around 59 brands, not very big in comparison to some of the more popular whisky producing countries such as America or Scotland, but still pretty impressive considering grain distilling only became legal here in 1999.

Norway, while it has more than one distillery does not have many, less than 10 in fact. But this does not stop from creating headlines in the whisky world.

At the beginning of 2014 it was announced that the world’s first “Arctic” whisky was to be produced in the tiny town of Myken, near the northernmost part of Norway.

Making use of desalinated seawater and maturing in the land of the midnight sun and Northern Lights, this whisky promises to have something unique about it.

The Arctic distillery is the brainchild of Roar Larson, a scientist at the Sintef Institute, who first visited Myken after discovering it whilst sailing with his family.

This product is sure to put Norway firmly on the whisky map, and only time will tell just how far it will open up the doors to other international distilleries looking to make their mark.

You never know, we could soon be hearing of more exotic whisky in years to come, perhaps even one day distilleries will look beyond earth and we’ll have our first Mars Malt!