In 1978, Jörg Rupf, a young barrister from Germany, came out to California. He returned the following year and decided to stay. Looking at the abundance of fruit in the state, he decided to open a distillery, and in January of 1982, St. George Spirits was licensed. Back then, there was no craft distilling scene.
“It was a little bit difficult to find a place where I could set up a distillery ‘cause nobody knew what I was doing and everybody was a little scared of it,” Rupf said. “Distilling was not a thing that anybody knew anything about and the rumour was, ‘Well, those stills always blow up.’”
Fire marshalls in other cities were afraid of approving a distillery. Rupf found a 400-square-foot space next to a winery in Emeryville, CA. Before it became a biotech hub and home to major companies such as Pixar Animation Studios, Peet’s Coffee & Tea,
