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superb fruit
technical improvements
superior product
superb fruit – Jorg Rupf brought his modest Holstein potstill to California in 1982 to gain close access to the state’s extraordinary fruit and exemplary food-handling technology. Jorg cares deeply about preserving the authentic aromas & tastes of the fruit he distills. One hallmark of Aqua Perfecta is its rich and delicious trueness to the fruit. Jorg goes to great lengths to find perfect ingredients, believing that consistency of quality and careful handling gives him an edge over European producers.
technical improvements – The second hallmark of Aqua Perfecta is the soft and extremely pure alcohol which “carries” the rich aromas and flavors. This comes from Jorg’s masterful knowledge of how to turn fruit into great brandy, and also from numerous technical innovations in preparing the materials and in the distillation itself. The commercial success of his Hangar One vodkas has given Jorg the freedom to develop “a whole new method of distillation”. The new procedures use a lot more fruit, and are technically quite demanding, but they enable Jorg to take his products to a higher level.
superior product – This new work, the “pinnacle of St George’s distillation achievement”, is embodied in Aqua Perfecta, an entirely new line with new labels. First released August 1, 2003 – 21 years after Jorg came to California – the bottlings include three fruit brandies (eaux-de-vie), two lovely liqueurs, and a grappa.
EAU DE VIE
AQUA PERFECTA pear williams (pear eau de vie/brandy).
Aqua Perfecta’s signature bottling. Bartlett pears are delivered to the distillery from Lake and Mendocino Counties, famous growing regions with hot days (flavor) and cool nights (structure). Jorg allows the pears to ripen further, until they reach their peak of soft juiciness, and ferments them with special champagne yeasts. Deep buttery pear, hints of spice, no trace of alcoholic roughness: a masterwork.
AQUA PERFECTA framboise (raspberry eau de vie/brandy). Powerful ripe flavors and aromas from Meeker raspberries grown in gravelled soils near the Frasier River in northernmost Washington state. To fully develop the intensity of these berries, Jorg cold-ferments them using a pinot noir wine yeast. Soft, lovely, and pure.
AQUA PERFECTA kirsch (cherry eau de vie/brandy).
Cherry is a notably difficult fruit to distill. Instead of using sweet table cherries, which result in the syrupy confections from big-name producers, Jorg distills sour Montmorencies (from the Michigan peninsula). Using pinot noir wine yeasts, he ferments both the cherry meat and its pit, which is unusual - the procedure lends depth and a subtle almond component. Classic kirsch, unusually rich & complex, and very clean.
LIQUEUR
Jorg’s liqueurs are made by fortifying rich juices from fresh macerated fruit. He fortifies with brandy distilled from the same fruit. This purist’s approach is rare: it is difficult and very expensive. Almost all of the well-known liqueurs are fortified with purchased grape brandy – usually of indifferent quality – whose roughness is masked by the liqueur’s sweetness. Not Jorg’s: the fruit’s delicacy and richness is subtly reinvoked and deepened by the same fruit’s distilled version.
AQUA PERFECTA framboise (raspberry liqueur).
Intense plummy raspberry richness in a velvety soft liquid, with a lovely balancing tartness.
AQUA PERFECTA pear liqueur.
Big big pear flavor, lots of soft subtle honeyed richness. Wonderfully fresh, with a lingering deep finish.
GRAPPA
AQUA PERFECTA grappa of Zinfandel.
Many grappas taste like lighter fluid, and that’s because they are distilled from pomace that has been badly handled: there’s usually no hint of the actual grape. Jorg’s distillery is practically next door to noted Zinfandel producer Rosenblum Cellars, so Jorg gets fresh pomace from unusually great wine grapes and is able to distill it immediately. The result is a clean, smooth distillate with the flowery ripe qualities of Zinfandel wine, balanced by the vegetal grappa tang from inclusion of stems and grapeseed.
