Under various circumstances, Ansley Coale was apprentice to a dhow-builder on the African coast, walked from Lahoul to Chem, presented a graduate seminar in Roman numismatics and Tacitus’ Historiae at UC Berkeley, performed Argentinian tango for paying audiences, and restored Victorian buildings in San Francisco. Ansley aspires to be a devoted father and husband and to leave the planet at peace with what he did on it. In 1982, he and Hubert Germain-Robin founded ALAMBIC, INC., widely regarded as producing some of the world’s finest distilled spirits.

Jorg Rupf is a nonchalant perfectionist. He’s a concert violinist, the godfather of American artisan distillers, a brilliant strategist, and was formerly the youngest judge in Germany. In fact, that’s how he came here. As a judge with the German Ministry of Culture, Jorg was sent to study government funding of the arts at UC Berkeley. Once in the Bay Area, he was overwhelmed by the abundance of California's amazing fruit and, well, he’s still here distilling it all.

Jorg comes from a long line of eau de vie distillers in Germany’s Black Forest, so naturally, Jorg’s concoctions center around eaux de vie (unaged fruit brandies). It’s his incredible understanding of how to draw flavor out of fruit and create balance in a spirit that make Hangar One fruit-infused vodkas so vivid.

Lance Winters used to be a nuclear engineer. He slid into beer-making. One day, he found himself on the doorstep of St George Spirits with a bottle of homemade whiskey in his hand. Jorg tasted it, and Lance has been part of St George ever since.

“Screwing around is where all good ideas come from,” says Lance. He keeps time free to cruise the produce markets for inspiration. “When you turn fruit into an eau de vie, it’s like writing an ode to it, like Pablo Neruda writing odes to everyday things. You have to see the fruit for the incredible thing it is.”

Big companies bring out new flavors of vodka based on market trends. Lance says, “Can you imagine Pablo Neruda going out and asking people what they would like to hear an ode about? No! You get inspired, you find something, and you inspire other people towards it.”

Lance loves to create experiences that you remember a long time. He delights in crafting spirits “like a high quality perfume, something transformative.”