April 1997, Volume 20, Issue 4

St. George Spirits

A quarter of a century ago my father would take us to the Alameda Naval Air Station. He would go shopping for groceries at the Commissary (the NAS’s version of Price Costco) and us kids would wait in the ‘54 Plymouth, each with a box of Cracker Jacks. The good old days, when you got a real toy in Cracker Jacks, not a paper trinket. We would wonder what was in all these aging warehouses, and, "Oh boy, some day, wouldn’t it be boss to actually own one?" We didn’t have any idea what we’d do with a warehouse; we’d figure out something later. Ownership of a vast expanse was all we cared about.

Fast forward to today. St. George’s Spirits has figured out exactly what to do with a warehouse - turn it into a distillery.

It was a perfect day for a drive - clear blue sky, slightly windy, not too warm, not too cool. We assembled in the parking lot near the stacks of wooden barrels.

Just inside the warehouse were two Holstein stills, each a dozen feet tall, hand hammered copper, brass flanges, stainless steel piping, and five glass port holes at each distillation stage. Although the stills were 15 years old, they looked as if they could be 125 years old. Jules Verne himself couldn’t have designed a better looking diving bell for Captain Nemo’s Nautilus.

Lance Winters, Distiller, gave the tour of St. George Spirits. The crush tank was modern and remarkably free from extra sanitation requirements. Superheated steam in the still takes care of any sanitation concerns. Although many fruits have been tested, the pulpy non-citrus fruits have had the best results. St. George Spirits is known for its pear, kirsch, framboise, and quince eau-de-vies and dessert wines.

Terminology:

Eau-de-vie - A clear brandy distilled from the fermented juice of fruit. French for "water of life." St. George’s distillations are almost exclusively eau-de-vie.

Spirit - Spirits can be distilled from anything that is fermentable, i.e. anything that contains sugar which can be turned into alcohol. For example: potatoes make vodka and schnapps; apples make calvados; cherries become kirsch; grain makes vodka, whiskey and scotch; sugar cane and molasses are used for rum. Liqueurs (cordials in Australia) are also spirit based.

Brandy - Distilled by similar process to Cognac but is made outside the Cognac region of France and does not require the use of Ugni Blanc or Folle Blanche grapes.

Cognac is a region of France that has produced liqueurs and brandies for hundreds of years. The juice of the Ugni Blanc grape is fermented and twice-distilled then aged in French oak. There are two main categories, V.S. - Very Special and V.S.O.P. - Very Special Old Pale.

Armagnac comes from western France. It is made using a slightly different distillation apparatus and aged in a local "black oak", which matures it much faster than the Limousin oak of Cognac. It is smooth but also drier than cognac because no sugar is added, as it is in cognac.

Calvados - A brandy made from apples, i.e. a distilled cider, in the Normandy region of northern France. It is made in a pot still, in the same way as Cognac, and then aged for at least two years.

Grappa - A dry colorless brandy distilled from fermented grape pomace. Also known as Marc in France, Aguardiente in Spain and Portugal, and Tresterschnapps in Germany.

Pomace - The dry or pulpy residue of fruit (grape skin and seeds) from which a liquid has already been pressed or extracted.

Framboise - Made from raspberries.

Kirsch - Made from cherries.

Mirabelle - Made from plums.

The entire operation is conducted on-site, from crushing, to distilling, to aging, to bottling. The tour soon led to a room with a 1/4-size test still and numerous award winning ribbons on the wall. But how did the spirits taste? A brewer might know what to expect just by looking at what’s in the glass.

Although clear and often colorless, the natural flavors of each fruit spirit were uncommonly fine and pronounced. Backed by the warmth of alcohol, the spirits gave an overwhelming sensation of the liquid essence of each fruit, which explains why they call it the "water of life."

Of particular interest was a wheat spirit, which is not on the market. This smooth spirit had a distinct, slightly sweet wheat character that is incomparable to anything else I’ve tasted.

An apple eau-de-vie, the result of a long abandoned experiment, was also a favorite. Again, unfortunately, this was not available to purchase.

I went home with some dessert wines: a superb sour cherry and a framboise. Many thanks to Lance Winters at St. George Spirits for the tour and to Paul Marshall for arranging the tour. Thanks to Mike Woods for supplying the digital photographs. It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience to see something similar to brewing, but a world apart in taste.