Eau de vie is magic; it’s the only way we know to make fruit live forever. It all starts with the raw materials, which have to be exceptional. As Jörg says, “All we have is the fruit. If it’s not in the fruit, we don’t get it.” We crush the fruit, inoculate it with yeast, and cold-ferment it in our insulated tank. Fermentation usually takes two weeks; at that point, we have a porridge of fruit solids, water, and about five percent alcohol. This is pumped into our Holstein stills in sixty-five gallon batches. Four hundred pounds of fruit, two hours, and one still run later, we’re left with five gallons of brandy. At between sixty to seventy percent alcohol, this is high-proof eau de vie; it’s mixed with filtered water to a consistent forty percent alcohol, which is bottling strength. “Standing in a California orchard more than 20 years ago, I was inspired by the perfect fruit around me to preserve its extraordinary quality in a brandy, or “eau de vie”. That was the beginning of St. George Spirits, America’s first distiller of true “water of life”. I set out to use the Old World methods I knew from my childhood in the Black Forest, and have constantly worked to refine them and to search out sources of delicious fruit. "I draw on this experience to present the pinnacle of St. George’s achievements. AQUA PERFECTA.” -Jorg Rupf
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