St. George Spirits All Purpose Vodka, USA

Founded in 1982 by German-born Jörg Rupf, St. George Spirits is one of the oldest craft distilleries in the United States. The distillery, housed in an old World War II airplane hangar on a former naval base on the edge of San Francisco, is home to Lance Winters, nuclear engineer, mad scientist and St. George's master distiller, and Dave Smith, St. George's chief blender. Winters and Smith, who are widely-known for experimenting with different types of spirits, have a laboratory dominated by a 10-liter test still, which sits adjacent to the glass beakers and graduated cylinders that cover every inch of their counter space. Next to the dusty chalkboards caked with equations for the conversion of sugar to alcohol and intricate diagrams of molecular structures are bottles of experimental whiskeys, vodkas, and even an aging balsamic vinegar. The St. George All Purpose Vodka starts with the same Bartlett pears that their flagship pear brandy is made with. The brandy is distilled using their Holstein stills to 95.1% ABV, then blended with a non-GMO grain base spirit. It is then filtered to remove impurities and bottled at 80 proof. While the pears themselves are intensely flavorful and aromatic, the finished product is clean yet full-bodied with very gentle fruity and floral notes. This makes the unique spirit a perfect drink on its own, while still being versatile enough to shine in vodka-based cocktails. Get your bottle today!