St. George Spirits XXX 30th Anniversary Edition Single Malt Whiskey, California, USA

So many flavors, so well balanced.

In the mid-70s, a young fellow from Germany, Jörg Rupf, came to the US to pursue postgraduate studies at Berkeley, California. But faith soon took a different turn: as he was far more impressed by the ripe fruits in the area than the study of law, he quit his profession to make some of the finest eau de vie this world has ever seen, and unbeknownst to him, he set out to become one of the mavericks for the American artisan distillation movement. There were less than 20 distilleries in the United States when Jörg Rupf founded St. George, now there are over 20.000. Even though Jörg retired in 2010, Master Distiller Lance Winters aka mad scientist, and Dave Smith aka Spirit whisperer are continuing the legacy of making some of the best American booze ever.

A special release for the distillery's 30th birthday is a walk through the history of the distillery. Winters took some of the oldest Single Malt he could find in the warehouse: a 15-year-old matured in ex-Bourbon casks, the first batch the distillery has ever produced, and a 13-year-old matured in pear eau de vie. To balance the elegance of the elderly Whiskies out with some wilderness, he combined them with two younger lads: a 7.5-year-old Single Malt that was aged in ex-Bourbon casks, and the 5-year-old that was aged in port wine barrels. This is an outstanding palette of flavors that are extremely well-balanced, and not likely to be repeated again. Only 715 bottles were ever released.