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Over twenty years ago, a young man from a long line of
distillers ventured from the Black Forest of Germany to the sunny Bay Area of
California. With its cultural diversity and abundance of amazing things to distill,
Jörg Rupf quickly fell in love with the San Francisco area. Jörg began
educating the American palate as to the virtues and beauty of finely crafted
eau de vie. Over the years, his products have garnered countless awards and
amassed a long list of devotees, among them some of the best restaurants in
the country as well as hardcore foodies.
To find reliable sources of intensely flavored fruit, Jörg tasted his way
through orchards in California and the Pacific Northwest. Pears from Lake County,
Sonoma and Ukiah had the concentrated flavors Jörg was after, as did raspberries
from Oregon and cherries from Michigan. The fruit of the West Coast has elated
Jörg with its wide variety and excellent quality. The availability of such
fruit enables St. George Spirits to produce the highest quality eau de vie. It
is Jörg’s belief (proven out by countless awards) that the unparalleled
consistency of the region's fruit gives his products an edge over European eau
de vie, whose distillers must deal with dramatic variations in fruit quality
from season to season. How important is the quality of the fruit in eau de vie
distilling? Consider that it takes up to thirty pounds of fruit to produce one
bottle.
Jörg still travels to the fruit-growing regions and personally selects
the fruit used in his distillations. He considers not growing the fruit himself
to be another advantage over many of his contemporaries. It not only allows
him to concentrate on what he does best, it also protects him from a poor
harvest. If a grower who makes eau de vie has a bad crop, he can’t
make good eau de vie. By being able to select the best fruit of the season
every year, St. George Spirits is guaranteed consistent quality.
