Booze Geekery (St. George Single Malt)

A few months ago, I chanced upon a New York Times article talking about a single malt whiskey made in the US:

Single malt? One assumes a Scotch whiskey with a tongue-twisting name, or a similar spirit from Ireland. But now, for the first time, there is an American single malt.

The newcomer is St. George Single Malt, made in Alameda, Calif., by St. George Spirits, a company known for its eaux de vie. This single malt is not your smoky, honeyed, amber Highlands dram, but a lighter quaff, closer perhaps to Irish and with a personality all its own.


It sounded interesting. So on my trip down to New York, I stopped to pick some up at Acker Merrall & Condit on the upper West side--founded in 1820; pretty neat. Incidentally, this is their selection of single malts--seems like I'll be coming back here sooner or later...


Further reading on the web (such as this SF Chronicle article) revealed that St. George is distilled at the old Alameda Naval Air Station--hey, do you Squid Labbers run into these folks? I think their tasting room is on my list of places to visit the next time I'm in the Bay Area.

Their website talked a bit more about their brewing and distilling process:

Okay, let’s start at the beginning. Whiskey starts as beer. I know that it sounds a little weird, but it’s true. So, bearing this in mind, it’s not that big a leap of logic to say that if you distill a more interesting and complex beer, you’ll end up with a more interesting and complex whiskey.

Our whiskey starts as a smoky brown ale. Heavily roasted barley provides a mixture of dried cocoa and hazelnut in the aroma, while a measure of the barley has been smoked over alder and beech for added complexity.

Interesting--a similar concept to Germain-Robin Cognac-style brandy (which I'm a big fan of). Cognac got its start because the white grapes of the region make a wine that is relatively thin and uninteresting. Solution: distill it, and make moonshine out of it! (okay, so it's much more classy when the French do it). In contrast, Germain-Robin uses California varietals with more character--Pinot Noirs, Chenin Blanc, Zinfandel... I guess this approach shouldn't be surprising, given that these two companies are interrelated.

Okay, enough writing... time for some drinking... um, tasting, of course.

The initial nose is much different than what I was expecting for a whiskey--fruity, somewhat sweet smelling; almost notes of a dessert wine (like a muscat). The flavor doesn't have quite the same fruitiness as the nose, but it's still very enjoyable. I needed to add a dab of water--86 proof; I think it lets the flavors come out from under the anesthetize-your-tongue-with-43%-alcohol.

This Malt Advocate review gives a perspective that I think I agree with: As a whiskey, it shows great potential but still needs more time to realize this potential. But in many respects it tastes more like some exotic liqueur. From this perspective, it seems more comfortable with its youth.

Man... we have to throw a Scotchtoberfest here sometime; this one seems worth sharing.