Jörg Rupf began distilling eau de vie from California fruit in 1982, which is to say he began distilling before American craft spirits existed as a category anyone could belong to. There was no movement to join and no market to serve.
What he built in Alameda, and what Lance Winters and Dave Smith have continued, is among the most technically sophisticated spirits operations in the United States. The range is unusually broad: Terroir Gin, made from California coastal sage, Douglas fir and bay laurel gathered around Mount Tamalpais alongside juniper; Breaking and Entering bourbon, assembled from Kentucky and Tennessee stocks and aged locally; and a California single malt from a mash of chocolate, crystal and pale malts.
Distilling in Alameda since 1982; the range runs from eau de vie to gin, bourbon and single malt.
Terroir Gin is the clearest illustration of what this distillery does. Open the bottle and you are smelling a specific Californian hillside — not a story about one, but the actual plants, distilled. Whisky Advocate awarded the single malt 95 points. On the farming question we should be exact: St. George holds no formal organic or sustainability certification. Its practices, documented botanical sourcing, water management and waste reduction, are well regarded across the industry and have been assessed favourably by outside reviewers, but that is recognition rather than certification, and the two are not interchangeable.
Its influence on American craft spirits considerably exceeds its commercial profile. St. George was making complex, serious spirits before the category existed, and has not simplified the approach as the category grew around it.
Why it’s remarkable
1982
he began before there was a category to belong to
Jörg Rupf started distilling eau de vie from California fruit in 1982. There was no movement to join and no market to serve. St. George is widely described as the first small distillery to open in the United States after Prohibition.
Mount Tamalpais
Terroir Gin is a hillside, distilled
California coastal sage, Douglas fir and bay laurel gathered around the mountain, alongside juniper. Open the bottle and you are smelling a specific Californian hillside — not a story about one, but the actual plants.
95 points
Whisky Advocate, for a Californian single malt
From a mash of chocolate, crystal and pale malts. The range also runs to Breaking and Entering bourbon, assembled from Kentucky and Tennessee stocks and aged locally — unusually broad for one distillery.
No certification
and we would rather say so here than bury it
St. George holds no formal organic or sustainability certification. Its botanical sourcing, water management and waste reduction are well regarded and have been assessed favourably by outside reviewers — but that is recognition rather than certification, and the two are not interchangeable.
Free Bacchus Verification
Sustainability practices recognised across the industry — no formal certification held
Listed on descriptive grounds; no formal certification is held. Read the standard
Flagship
Botanivore Gin
Best award
Double Gold · SFWSC
If you’re buying
Price
Around US$35 for the flagship bottling. Approximate, and it moves with vintage and market.
Drinking now
Ready now — spirits do not improve in the bottle.
Serving
Over plenty of ice with a light tonic, or in a martini, where the herbal layering shows most clearly.
Availability
Generally obtainable through specialist retailers.
Tastes like
Botanivore is herbal and layered rather than juniper-forward — nineteen botanicals, three of them vapour-infused during distillation.
Pairs with
Smoked fish, olives, or something citrus-forward.
Price bands are approximate and move with vintage, market and region. They are a guide, not a quotation.
Cheat sheet
Save it to your phone. Everything you need to recognise this producer, and three things worth saying about it, at a glance in a shop or across a table.
