Lance Winters

“From Nuclear Engineer to Whiskey Visionary”

Lance Winters’s journey began far from whiskey barrels and aged oak. Born and raised in Fremont, California, he initially charted a path defined by logic, structure, and science. Winters spent eight years as a U.S. Navy nuclear engineer, stationed in Alameda on the aircraft carrier Enterprise, monitoring nuclear reactors and honing precision skills under demanding conditions.

In interviews, Winters has humorously recalled his upbringing in Fremont, describing it as a "bumpkin farm place" that later evolved into suburban sprawl, an environment he initially resisted but later looked back on with thoughtful clarity. While some of his earliest passions pointed toward cooking—he once asked his mother for a wok at age thirteen—he found himself drawn to the precision of science and engineering, enlisting in the Navy instead of pursuing culinary arts. After leaving the Navy, Winters explored brewing as a creative outlet. He began working at brewpubs around the Bay Area, including Fremont’s first brewpubs like ‘Brewpub on the Green’ and others in Hayward. The moment that changed everything came when a friend brought him a glass of Lagavulin Scotch. The depth, storytelling, and craft enthralled him: he realized that whiskey was "distilled beer," and that he already understood half of the process.

With that insight, he built a 25‑gallon still in his garage, distilling kegs of his homebrew into whiskey. He even kept extra beer to sip while working the still, a ritual that anchored the excitement of experimenting with spirits at home.

In 1996, after a few years of distilling, Winters mustered the courage to approach Jörg Rupf, founder of St. George Spirits, with a bottle of his homemade spirit as a résumé. Rupf’s admittedly blunt evaluation, “That’s inoffensive,” could have discouraged anyone. Instead, it lit a fire. Rupf offered a trial month. Winters accepted, quit his job the next day, and never looked back.

Within a year, he formally began the single malt whiskey program at St. George, releasing their first California single malt around the year 2000, long before American single malt was recognized as a category. As Master Distiller, Winters continued to transform St. George Spirits into a multi-award-winning artisanal distillery. Under his leadership, the distillery expanded into exotic spirits including gin, brandy, absinthe, and more. His experiments, some of which include popcorn bourbon, bristlecone pine‑needle spirit, kumquat and banana eaux-de-vie, have become the stuff of legend among craft spirits enthusiasts.