Episode 135

St. George Spirits

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St. George Spirits

Episode 135

What’s shakin, cocktail fans?

Welcome to Episode 135 of The Modern Bar Cart Podcast!

Thanks for joining me for this interview episode, where we track down the best and brightest minds in the spirits and cocktail world so that we can share their secrets with you. This time around, we have an extremely special treat for ya. During my recent West Coast road trip, Eric was able to grab some time with Master Distiller Lance Winters of St. George Spirits, based right by the bay in Alameda, California.

Some of our East Coast listeners may be familiar with St. George from their line of excellent gins that have been available on more and more liquor store shelves lately, but you may be surprised to learn about their incredible work with fruit Eaux de Vie and whiskey, which is where this brand has its roots.

During this interview with Lance, Eric refers to St. George as the “Forrest Gump” of the craft spirits space. They were there at the beginning – in fact, they were the first craft distillery to open in the United States since Prohibition – and there are a lot of key moments in the evolution of the booze industry where you’d look around – and there was St. George.

Some of the things we cover in this wide-ranging conversation with Master Distiller Lance Winters include:

How Lance’s childhood fascination with flavors, spices, and seasonings eventually led him into the beer and whiskey world, where he met Jorg Rupf, the legendary founder of St. George Spirits.
Why flavor is an ideal medium to use when you want to transfer some sort of emotion or experience between completely different people.
What it took to grow St. George from a brand that started making Alsatian-inspired fruit brandies in a shipping containers to one of the undisputed leaders in the craft spirits world
Then we taste the following St. George Spirits and give you in-depth notes: Their pear brandy, Terroir Gin, Bruto Americano Aperitivo, and their single malt whiskey.

Featured Cocktail: The Tuxedo

This episode’s featured cocktail is the Tuxedo. This is a cocktail we’ve been playing around with as a way to get to know St. George’s various gin expressions: their Terroir, Locavore, and High Rye Gin, all of which are very different and special. To make the classic Tuxedo cocktail (which is a riff on the martini), you’ll need:

2 oz gin
1 oz Fino Sherry (which is a dry sherry)
And several dashes of our Embitterment orange bitters

Just like a classic martini, you combine all these ingredients in a mixing glass with ice, stir for about 15-20 seconds, and then strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with a citrus twist. Orange is classic, but we’re often partial to lemon.

Lightning Round

What is your Favorite Cocktail?

My absolute favorite is a Margarita. As soon as I sip one and feel it flowing through my veins, I imagine it’s what a drug addict feels. It’s just this amazing, comforting radiance that flows through my body, and it’s an amazing thing. But one that I absolutely adore that usually shows off the prowess of a bartender is a clarified milk punch.

If You Were a Cocktail Ingredient, What Would You Be?

I would be a Luxardo Cherry. It’s an aspirational goal. The radioactive pink cherries we often see in cocktails have nothing to do with a true cherry, and the cherries that Luxardo puts out are a textural experience, they’re a flavor explosion, they’re incredible. I’m not saying that’s WHAT I am. I’m saying that’s what I would like to be.

Pro tip: Make Luxardo Cherry Ice Cream

Cocktail with Anyone, Past or Present?

I would sit and drink Death in the Afternoons with Ernest Hemingway, and as we drank more and more of them, challenge him to do stupid feats of physical activity and see which one of us broke ourselves first.

What’s a Common or Traditional Cocktail Ingredient You’ve Never Tasted?

I don’t think that there’s anything I haven’t tried. From Cynar to Baiju to Malibu Rum, I’ve tried them all…except for Amarula Cream Liqueur from Africa

St. George Spirits

Featured Cocktail: The Tuxedo

Lightning Round

What is your Favorite Cocktail?

If You Were a Cocktail Ingredient, What Would You Be?

Cocktail with Anyone, Past or Present?

What’s a Common or Traditional Cocktail Ingredient You’ve Never Tasted?

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