It’s laborious to consider that it has been 40 years since St George Spirits revolutionized craft spirits. In celebration, the California-based spirits makers have unveiled a extremely restricted, particular version whiskey, the St George fortieth Anniversary Version Single Malt Whiskey.
“Our fortieth Anniversary Version Single Malt Whiskey represents the cumulative expertise of 40 years of boundary-pushing distillation, in addition to our decades-long love affair with making single malt,” says grasp distiller Lance Winters. “It’s the pure essence of passionate self-expression—and it’s additionally scrumptious.”
The St George Spirits fortieth Anniversary Version Single Malt Whiskey celebrates the distillers’ ardour for capturing the intangible: sense of place, the emotion of a second, and the joys of pursuing one thing by no means executed earlier than. It comes as an addition to the distillery’s portfolio of American Single Malts: Baller Single Malt Whiskey and the Lot Sequence, a yearly launch which the distillery started making in 1996 and first launched in 2000.
In preparation for its launch, Winters and head distiller and blender Dave Smith sampled greater than 600 casks over a interval of a number of months, finally deciding on solely 14 to attract from for the fortieth Anniversary Version. Sourced from barrels that vary from 4 years previous to one of many earliest casks the distillery ever laid down, the rigorous choice course of speaks to the distillery’s strategy of melding precision with creativeness. Every particular person barrel gives a variety of distinctive traits that full the whiskey’s taste profile. For instance, a California Sauternes-style cask imparts notes of stone fruit and rose geranium. Some barrels are nods to essential items of St. George’s heritage, just like the umeshu casks that function a tribute to Baller Single Malt Whiskey.
“Particular releases are about sharing our heritage and making an announcement about the place we’re in the present day, in addition to the place we’re going,” says Smith. “We had been impressed to complete a portion of our anniversary single malt in umeshu cask as we found that our Lot Sequence mash invoice married completely with the stone fruit tones of umeshu and introduced stability to the wealthy weight of Lance’s house-made tawny port casks.”
St George fortieth Anniversary Version Single Malt Whiskey opens with a posh nostril of vibrant cola, darkish chocolate, and lager; with creamy notes of brown butter, salted caramel, sandalwood, and candy coconut rising with time uncovered to air. The palate reveals daring notes of darkish chocolate, walnut fudge, latte, and Amber malt mingled with buttered waffle; joined by secondary notes of coconut, spice, cinnamon, clove, candied ginger, stone fruit, and tender smoke.
To additional honor 40 years of craft distilling, St. George Spirits can be donating $40,000 to the STEPUP Basis, a company that goals to supply underserved people with alternatives, coaching, and mentorship to enter the spirits business.
Bottled at 48% ABV, St. George Spirits fortieth Anniversary Version Single Malt Whiskey is priced at $500 and is anticipated to start out reaching positive spirits retailers in early November, though rollout timing will fluctuate from market to market. It can be bought in-person on the distillery throughout a particular launch occasion November 12. Just one,982 bottles had been produced.
For added info, head over to the model’s official web site.
Earlier this month, we caught up with St George Head Distiller Dave Smith to speak about their Lot 21 Single Malt.
