We honor Sam Brannan’s colorful life with this Gin named after the Calistoga Depot Distillery Sam built over 155 years ago. In 1852, when Sam Brannan first saw “Indian Hot Springs,” Calistoga’s original name, the area was populated with a few early settlers. In 1859, he purchased the 2,000 acres surrounding the Hot Springs and named it Calistoga from joining the words California and Saratoga (New York’s world-famous mineral water spa). Brannan founded the Napa Valley Railroad in 1868 in order to provide tourists with an easier way to reach Calistoga from the San Francisco Bay ferry boats that docked in the lower Napa Valley at Vallejo. The railroad was later sold at a foreclosure sale in Napa County in 1869.