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It may be the biggest leap forward for homemade hooch since Appalachian stills and souped-up getaway cars. Only in this case it's all perfectly legal.

Introducing Whisky Works, the age-your-own-booze kit that promises to put a little Dukes of Hazzard excitement into your urbane, single-malt sipping.

The $89.95 box contains two items: a miniature oak cask the size of a large pickle jar, and a bottle of young, pale-coloured Scottish malt whisky. Pour the spirit into the wood and wait one or two months, then enjoy the mellow rewards of your skilled craftsmanship and patience.

Because the cask is so small, there's a greater liquid-to-surface ratio, so the whisky matures much faster than it would in a standard 200-litre cask.

Whisky Works is a product of Premium Bottlers, a new Canadian company that recently began importing single-malt Scotches by the cask and bottling them domestically under its own brand, much the way independent bottlers do in Scotland.

Based in Richmond Hill, Ont., the company got its start thanks to a loophole in federal law.

That loophole makes it possible to do an end run around provincial liquor boards (the only legally sanctioned importers of bottled liquor) by bringing in spirits in bulk.

The catch: The imported product must be used for blending with domestic spirits. But, fortunately for Premium Bottlers and their Scotch-loving customers, the domestic content requirement is just 1 per cent.

"It actually works out to five or six drops per bottle, so it's really nothing," said Barry Stein, a Scotch aficionado who quit his job as a consultant to co-found Premium Bottlers with Barry Bernstein, formerly a software executive.

Mr. Stein and Mr. Bernstein shrewdly add the domestic whisky to the Scotch while the latter is still at 60- to 65-per-cent alcohol, the so-called cask strength at which most whiskies are aged before being diluted with distilled water at the time of bottling.

"We're adding 1-per-cent Canadian malt whisky to our cask, and then we're watering it down to 46-per-cent alcohol before bottling, which is normal."

Introduced last year through several stores in the Calgary area and recently launched in Ontario, Whisky Works may be the first legal product in Canada that lets consumers play a key role in the whisky-making process - a sort of U-age for the U-brew set.

While it's illegal to distill moonshine in your basement, nothing in Canadian law prevents consumers from assisting in the second, and some would say more critical, phase of the whisky-maker's art: maturation. Until now, however, it was impractical because there were no commercial sources of raw whisky to mature.

Contrary to widespread belief, whisky, brandy, rum and other aged spirits do not improve after they've been bottled. To improve, a spirit must mingle with wood, and the preferred medium for fine spirits such as cognac, which is distilled from grapes, or expensive single-malt Scotch, distilled from barley, is tight-grained, charred oak.

After it emerges with vodka-like clarity from the still and is placed in the cask, the cereal-flavoured whisky interacts with the toasted wood, taking on colour, body and added flavours often reminiscent of vanilla, toffee, smoke and fruit.

In some cases, typically with American bourbon, the casks will be made of new wood. But Scotch producers in particular favour previously filled casks that contain slight residues of sherry, port or, more commonly, American bourbon. Used casks contribute subtler oakiness while also adding overtones from the residues.

It usually takes 10 years or more for a single malt to develop optimal characteristics. But the timing varies depending on the distiller's preference and such factors as location and cask size. As outside weather changes, the liquid and cask will expand and contract, accelerating the interchange of spirit and wood. Meanwhile, the smaller the cask, the more liquid-to-oak surface contact and the faster the spirit will develop secondary flavours.

That's why the Whisky Works kit does its job inside two months. Mr. Stein and Mr. Bernstein chose a one-litre miniature American-oak barrel sourced from Mexico, which looks more like a tequila-for-tourists souvenir than something you'd find in a Scottish castle.

"It's a real cask made by a real cooper," Mr. Bernstein said.

For the base spirit, Premium Bottlers had to source a young, pale-coloured whisky that wouldn't typically be found on the market. Because it's licensed to import in bulk, it was able to procure an immature, three-year-old spirit direct from a whisky warehouse. The spirit is a mix of eight to 10 Scottish single malts, to which Premium Bottlers adds an obligatory smidgeon of Canadian malt from the Glenora distillery in Nova Scotia.

Mr. Stein says the young spirit is designed to be palatable enough to drink on its own, and I wouldn't completely disagree. It's sweetly smooth and has an appealing smokiness, a telltale mark of one of its peat-fire-dried components from the island of Islay. But it by no means packs the power or rewarding depth of, say, a 10-year-old Laphroaig.

But after just eight weeks in "barrel," the Whisky Works spirit takes on remarkable colour, changing from pale straw to rich chestnut. And the flavour is completely altered. I tasted a two-month-old sample, which had appealing, upfront flavours of toffee and vanilla, though not as well integrated as I would have liked. It's not the most complex spirit you'll come across, to be sure, but it was compelling given the highly accelerated maturation.

At $90, it may seem expensive, but I can't put a value on your bragging rights when you get to tell friends it was matured by you in a closet in Mississauga, Moncton or Medicine Hat.

And you get to keep the baby barrel to, say, turn your Sauza silver into an amber, "aged" tequila reposado.

For the whisky lover, it may make a fun holiday gift, a sort of chemistry set for grownups.

If you're not the hands-on sort, you may still appreciate the rarity of Premium Bottlers' other products, the aged whiskies imported by the cask and bottled here complete with fancy cask-number designations and references to the particular distillery of origin.

There are nine in all, mostly available in Alberta and British Columbia, including an excellent one from the well-known Scapa distillery in the Orkney Islands and a decent one from Auchentoshan in the Lowlands region.

To conform to federal law, all the products are blended with 1-per-cent Glenora single malt from Nova Scotia, so they can't be called single malts (which are whiskies from a single distillery). So, to please their distillery suppliers, they label their whiskies with contractions rather than the official distillery name, as in SCAP for the 99-per-cent Scapa product and ACHN for the 99-per-cent Auchentoshan whisky.

Jim Murray, a respected British-based whisky expert and author of Jim Murray's Whisky Bible 2008, has tasted and reviewed the products and says he takes no issue with Mr. Stein and Mr. Bernstein adding the 1-per-cent Glenora content to comply with federal law.

"Generally speaking, their whiskies are decent and one in particular, the SCAP 101, as it is known, is in the superstar league," he said. But he added they tend to source whiskies from second- and third-fill casks, leading to a "light and juicy" style with less of a new-wood influence.

"The fact that the casks are so old means that often you don't get the infusion of oak required to offer the balance that turns good whisky into great whisky."

Currently the only product available in Ontario LCBO stores is LINK, combining single malt from Linkwood distillery in Speyside with 1-per-cent Glenora. It is, indeed, light and juicy, with a hint of licorice and a silky texture. The finish, though, is on the short side. I might be tempted to age it for a week in the Mexican barrel from the Whisky Works kit.

bcrosariol@globeandmail.com

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Tasting notes

Premium Bottlers LINK pure malt whisky aged 10 years, cask 1013 (99-per-cent

Linkwood; 1-per-cent Glenora)

Gallops off at a brisk, juicy, malty pace but tires as the

natural caramels take hold. (Available in Ontario, $69.50,

No. 52829)

Premium Bottlers ACHN

vatted malt whisky aged 10 years, cask 102 (99-per-cent Auchentoshan; 1-per-cent

Glenora)

Very young, enormously

citrusy effort with all the usual

Auchentoshan foibles. Coming from a third fill makes for an

interesting dram. (Available in

Alberta and private stores in

British Columbia)

Premium Bottlers SCAP

vatted malt whisky aged 10 years, cask 101 (99-per-cent Scapa; 1-per-cent Glenora)

Absolutely amazing malt. This Scapa, from a third-fill

bourbon cask, one assumes,

appears half its age and simply glories in its natural brilliance.

If this doesn't prove what world-great whisky this distillery

conjures in its most simple form, nothing will. (Available in Alberta and private stores in British

Columbia)

Source: Jim Murray's Whisky

Bible 2008, available at

whiskybible.com