Distilleries create a cocktail mecca

With a dozen craft distillery tasting rooms to visit and a new speakeasy downtown, Paso Robles is swiftly becoming a cocktail mecca. Most of these distillers are winemakers, as well, which is one reason you’ll find so many distilleries inside of or attached to wineries. Here’s just a sampling to explore.

Re:Find

At Re:Find, Alex and Monica Villicana launched Paso’s first (first legal, anyway) distillery making grape-based spirits. Don’t miss their fresh, crisp cucumber vodka, made with local organic cucumbers, and (e), a highly punctuated, grape-based, barrel-finished vodka that has all the caramel, clove and cinnamon aromas and flavors you’d find in a grain-based whiskey.

DETAILS >> 2735 Adelaida Road, Paso Robles; www.refinddistillery.com

Pendray’s Distillery

For fruit-based spirits and grappa, head to Pendray’s Distillery for beautiful fruit brandies and liqueurs, including a fragrant orange liqueur. Both the unaged malvasia bianca and the port barrel-aged zinfandel grappas go down smooth, without that typical grappa burn. DETAILS >> 95 Booker Road, Templeton; www.pasoportwine.com

Wild Coyote Winery

At Wild Coyote Winery, you’ll find Manucci Spirits, where the spicy garlic and habanero and floral anise brandies are perfect sipped neat. The amber barrel-aged grappa fills your mouth with the flavors of butterscotch and toasted hazelnuts.

DETAILS >> 3775 Adelaida Road, Paso Robles; www.wildcoyote.biz

Krobar Craft Distillery

Looking for great whiskey, rye, bourbon or rum? Krobar Craft Distillery’s tasting room, which is tucked behind Barton Family Vineyards winery, has a clubby, speakeasy feel. You can enjoy vineyard views, and fuel up on huge muffulettas and gooey mac ’n’ cheese from Barton’s Kitchen Window, too. Coming soon: a San Luis Obispo malt house and another microdistillery.

DETAILS >> 2174 Highway 46, Paso Robles; www.krobardistillery.com

Eleven Twenty Two

As for that actual speakeasy: A secret door leads to Eleven Twenty Two, where bartenders put on quite the show flaming cedar or black-walnut planks to smoke glasses for signature cocktails, such as the Montenegro’s Revenge or Connery Row. You’ll find updated versions of classic libations, plus a notable absinthe list.

DETAILS >> 1122 Pine St, Paso Robles; eleven-twentytwo.com

PHOTOS BY MARY ORLIN Pendray’s Distillery in Paso Robles makes a selection of fruit and nut liqueurs.

The window into the copper pot still offers a glimpse of the distilling process at Krobar Craft Distillery in Paso Robles.