Here is a selected preview of our exhibiting spirits to whet your palate:  
 
Old World Spirits
We start our preview with the return of San Francisco’s own Old World Spirits and their unique portfolio. At the top of the list stands California Gold Run Rye Whiskey, a new release by Davorin Kuchan, winemaker and master distiller. Davorin is proud to present his excellent and highly unusual product to the sophisticated WOW community. Some WOW members who’ve already tasted this gem expressed the opinion that Gold Run Rye Whiskey is “about the most faithful evocation of the grain in spirituous form” they have yet had the opportunity to taste. Try this 100% white rye organic whiskey at WOW 2012 and let us know what you think! Perhaps, like us, you’ll feel dominated by the rye grain flavor that punches clear through the other ingredients in a Manhattan or a Sazerac. Davorin himself will be available at the Expo to talk about the craft distillation revolution in United States today, as well as to eagerly prompt you on where to buy a bottle Gold Run, already short in supply.

The folks at Old World extend their talents to two incredible gins as well as whiskey. Don’t miss tasting the single barrel “Rusty Blade”, a superior gin of distinction, at the Expo. Made in small batch copper pot still style with at least a dozen botanicals, this is a dry style gin to rival any made in the UK or for that matter, anywhere! Old World Spirits also brings their current expression of their longtime award winning Blade Gin, this time NOT in a heavy Juniper-forward London style. 
 
Diageo
There are hundreds more spirits to sample at the Expo and we’ll move on now to some specialty expressions that will make our VIP guests rejoice. Diageo presents Auchroisk and Glen Spey single malts from their 2010 Super Premium releases. Steve Beal, Master of Whisky and Classic Malts Brand Ambassador will be delighted to enlighten you on the process of selection and tasting profiles for the special series. The 20-year-old bottling of Auchroisk is distilled in one of the youngest distilleries in Speyside, which was originally built to provide whisky for blends including Johnnie Walker. The ambition has always been to declare and distribute the bourbon-matured Auchroisk as a single malt. In order to achieve that, the spirit was given an additional year in sherry casks which produced a fuller and fundamentally more complex flavor. Introduced under the name Singleton– the owners deemed the name “Auchroisk” (pronounced ‘OH-thrusk’) difficult to read– the malt we’ll sample at the Expo is the first mainstream officially bottled Auchroisk since the demise of the original Singleton range at the turn of the century. 
 
Diageo Continued
Diageo’s second special treat, Glen Spey, comes from a distillery located in the famous central Speyside town of Rothes, the heartland of malt whisky production. Having started life as an oatmeal mill in the 1870s, the distillery maintained modest levels of whisky production and, like Auchroisk, intended its malts for blended whiskies, notably J&B. This is why Glen Spey bottlings are relatively rare. Interestingly, if you happen to take a tour of Glen Spey, you’ll see the J&B logo integrated into the name of the distillery. Another noteworthy feature lies in the production of the malt; they still use the so-called ‘purifiers’, small condensers that return a portion of alcohol vapors back into the pot to be re-distilled thus achieving a lighter, more delicate taste. island of Islay in 124 years. It’s a farm-distillery, one of the very few in Scotland with all-on-one-site confidential production: from traditional floor-malting to bottling. Maturity doesn’t always come with age, wouldn’t you agree? 
 
St George Distillery
For our final teaser this week we trot the globe and land right back where we started in San Francisco, home of St George Distillery and distiller Lance Winters St George Single Malt Whiskey. Lance started laying down casks for his trademark bottling about a dozen years ago but you’ll need to go to the St George booth to find out exactly which of these incredibly small batch artisanal expressions are on display the night of the Expo. If you are lucky enough to meet the maker you are in for both a treat and a full fledged education! Don’t overlook the beautiful label by David Lance Goins, one of San Francisco’s most revered artists.