A lot of domestic independent distilleries and micro-distilleries have been getting a lot of press lately. A lot of press, and a lot of rave reviews. There's been something of a serious micro-distillery boom happening in the past ten years, much to both the pleasure and the pain of the spirits community, which has been staunchly divided on the matter since it came into being.

Certain spirit enthusiasts will swear unabashedly by their favorite micro-distillery, and others within the same circle will happily and entirely debate the micro-distilleries' quality and place within the world of drink. However, as pro- or anti-micro-distillation one may be, when the chips (or glasses, as it may be) are down, nobody is going to argue with quality.

And quality is certainly something that's striven for every day at Berkshire Mountain Distillers in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Founded in 2007 by Chris Weld, Berkshire Mountain is an award-winning micro-distillery that crafts spirits which manage to please both professional critics and casual enthusiasts alike. Of course, it doesn't hurt that they put out a line of quality spirits and do so without cutting corners.

Berkshire Mountain Distillers is also unique in that Weld, the founder, can trace his company's origins all the way back to when he was in the eighth grade. "It was my eighth grade science project for school, and everybody got to design their own project," Weld recalls. "I'd been reading all these books, and my dad was a scotch drinker, so I'd gotten it in my head that I wanted to build my very own still. So I told my mom, and she was really supportive of the whole idea. We set about planning to build a still."

However, it was soon after that, when doing research, that the young Weld discovered that to distill without a license in the United States is one of those pesky Federal Offenses. "That kind of put the kibosh on the whole plan," Weld adds with a chuckle.

After spending twenty years in the medical industry as an adult, Weld moved to Massachusetts, where he came into possession of a property near, what else, the Berkshire Mountains. The property, amounting in the beginning, at least according to Weld, was little more than "a dilapidated apple farm," sporting three hundred apple trees, and moreover, spring waters of some legend and repute.

Back in the 19th century, the water from these springs was considered by those in the know to be therapeutic and curative, so much so that a hotel was erected nearby to utilize the springs. This hotel, a getaway intended to house people suffering from all sorts of maladies, "anything from diabetes to eczema," Weld says, all of whom sought alleviation in the form of these pure, curative waters.

It's this water that Berkshire Mountain Distillers uses in every spirit they produce and release. While Weld doesn't claim any mystical healing powers to be contained in the water, he does swear by the water itself, which is, if not magical, locally sourced and naturally granite-filtered.

Of course, it's not just the water that makes Berkshire Mountain Distillers special - they primarily use local and domestic ingredients, including corn grown two miles away from the distillery's premises and New England rye and barley. Their multiple-award-winning product line is similarly unique, in that they're a micro-distillery that doesn't simply focus on one product - no, Berkshire Mountain Distillers lists six: two gins, one rum, one vodka, one Bourbon and one New England Corn Whiskey. They've also got machinations on releasing their very own single malt whisky using a local malting house, but that's still just in the planning stages.

What's interesting is that while most micro-distilleries usually have a single focal point in their spirit releases, Berkshire Mountain doesn't consider any one of their spirits to be their "flagship" drink.

"That'd be like picking your favorite kid," Weld says.

While Weld is understandably reticent to claim a favorite, many spirit enthusiasts are eager to pick sides within the world of Berkshire Mountain Distillers. In fact, Whisky Life and Spirits Magazine's own editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Karlovitch, is unequivocal in choosing and proclaiming his favorite Berkshire spirit. "Berkshire's Bourbon Whiskey is, without a doubt, a truly world-class micro-distillery bourbon. It honestly sets the standard by which all other micro-distilled bourbon should be judged."

Currently, Berkshire Mountain Distillers distributes primarily along the east coast - Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Georgia, New Jersey and New York being among their primary markets - but Weld has got his eyes on expansion. Shipping roughly three thousand cases last year alone, Weld recognizes that there's a home for his spirits across the country. "We're looking to expanding our distribution to places like Tennessee, Florida, Louisiana and Colorado, maybe as early as this year."

One can only hope that their distribution continues to expand - after all, if there's one thing that everyone can agree on, it's quality, something that Berkshire Mountain Distillers has in abundance.