Paso Robles is an absolutely beautiful region of California, with a plentiful number of wineries and accompanying scenic views. But not everyone is a wine drinker — some people prefer cocktails (like myself, for example). Which is why, when I was there recently with my wife and her family, I was excited to see that there was a distillery not too far off the beaten path, and they graciously consented to letting me stop in to see what they had on offer. I’m sure glad they did.
History
Castoro Cellars was founded in Paso Robles in 1983 by the husband and wife team of Niels and Bimmer Udsen. Niels had studied agrobusiness at the California Polytechnic University in nearby San Luis Obispo, and he immediately set out to use that knowledge to benefit the local community with his wines.
The winery started “backwards”, as he says — first he repackaged a finished wine, then he obtained his own equipment and made his own wine from other people’s grapes, and finally in 1990 he had built his business to the point where he was able to afford to open a vineyard and tasting room of his own in Paso Robles.
Almost three decades later, in 2013, the business decided to expand across the street by opening their own distillery. They wanted to offer a product to those who preferred something a little stronger than wine — and to do it in a local, sustainable, and unique way for Paso Robles. Rather than just creating another whiskey distillery, they instead chose to distill brandy — specifically, using the grapes from their winery across the street to make their products. This decision uniquely sets their distillery apart from others in that it might be one of the few where you can sit and sip a glass of spirits on the exact same parcel of land where it was grown, harvested, fermented, distilled, and bottled.
Product
- Learn More: What Is Brandy?
Brandy is a spirit that must be distilled from fruit of some sort, and in this case the distillery is using a crop of orange muscat grapes that were grown across the street at their parent winery. This particular bottle of brandy was made from the 2017 growing season orange muscat grapes, bottle number 1426.
In some of their products, Bethel Rd Distillery will use the leftover grapes from their winemaking activities, a process very similar to the production of grappa in Italy that reduces waste and creates some delicious spirits. In this case, though, the distillery uses fresh, whole grape fruits as the source of their spirit. Those grapes are crushed, fermented, and then batch distilled in the distillery’s hybrid still (part pot still, part column still) to produce the raw white brandy.
Once distilled, the spirit is then placed into double size French oak barrels for a period of three months to mature.
The size of the barrels and the length of maturation are both important here. Larger barrels means proportionally less surface area for the brandy to interact with, leading to a reduced impact of the barrel on the flavor profile of the brandy. Similarly, choosing only a three month maturation period in those barrels prevents the oak from overpowering the inherent fruity notes. Those choices were intentional to try and keep the inherently delicious flavor of the grapes present in the finished product.
Once properly matured, the spirit is proofed down and bottled for sale.
Packaging
We’re not breaking any new ground with this bottle design, and that’s perfectly fine. This distillery seems perfectly happy draw visitors to their tasting room and sell them bottles of spirits once they have been properly impressed by the product. They don’t really need fancy gimmicks or intricate bottle designs to make the sale, they just need something that looks good (and fits in a checked bag).
This half-size bottle is shaped roughly like a white wine bottle, with a cylindrical body, long curved shoulder, and long slender neck. The bottle is capped off with a wood and synthetic cork stopper.
Around the bottle are some nicely designed labels that use the same branding and general style as the marketing materials for the distillery. There’s nothing particularly noteworthy about the primary label around the body of the bottle, but the long seal across the top of the bottle is a nicely designed touch that does make it feel a bit special and European.
Neat
In the glass, this actually looks like a lightly oaked chardonnay or some other white wine, although with more of a soft golden color than you’d normally expect. The very first aroma you pick up are those grapes — not dried grapes like you’d see with a heavily oaked spirit, but crisp and fresh grapes as if they were just plucked off the vine. There’s a grassy vegetal note in there as well, combined with just a hint of vanilla and brown sugar.
Taking a sip, the spirit is more viscous and mouth coating than you’d expect, indicating there’s a bit of sugar content in here (the other indication being that it’s made of grapes). The flavors are reversed from the aroma, with the vanilla and light brown sugar taking a more prominent role and the fruity grapes with their grassy note accompaniment being more background support. Those grape flavors are more prominent as you breathe through your nose after taking a sip, which is an interesting development. Repeated tastes also reveal some baking spices like nutmeg and cinnamon, again likely oak related flavors that are lightly incorporated into the mix.
My overall impression of this when taken neat is that this is a crisp, clean brandy that has very light, vegetal, possibly floral flavors. Very similar to a good white wine — just with a higher ABV.
On Ice
I kinda expected this to happen: the distillery went to great pains to maintain the delicate and light flavors of the grape, and dropping a couple cubes of ice into it pretty much sinks that boat.
This is still delicious, but the primary flavors I’m getting are from the oak — vanilla, baking spices, and brown sugar. There’s some sweetness and viscosity still, and a hint of the grape flavor in the background, but it doesn’t quite have the complexity that we saw when taken neat.
Still definitely drinkable, just less complex and interesting.
Cocktail (Sidecar)
I’m a sucker for a good sour cocktail. My wife strongly disagrees, but I think the sourness of the lemon juice often helps to accentuate the fruit of the other ingredients.
In this case, I do think that I see more of the grape flavor coming through… but it is still vastly overpowered by the orange in the Cointreau and the lemon from the lemon juice. There’s just enough of the vanilla and baking spices from the oak maturation to peek through, and it makes for a very delicious and drinkable cocktail in my opinion, but the actual flavor from the grapes seem to be lost in the mix.
Thankfully, this same distillery also makes an orange liqueur that I think would be a good candidate to replace the Cointreau — and keep the flavor profile more uniquely Paso Robles, too.
Overall Rating
At first glance, you might not think that this would rate a full four stars on my list — especially at a $70 per 750ml price tag. But there are a couple factors that heavily influence that decision.
First is the production process. I really respect and appreciate that this bottle of brandy was grown, nurtured, harvested, distilled, and matured all on-premises by the same company. It’s rare that such a thing happens, and to see it accomplished with this kind of a result is remarkable. The flavors may be lighter than I’d usually like to see, but they are beautifully captured and present when taken neat. Things tend to drop off with mixers and ice, but that I can forgive.
Speaking of those flavors, the second reason I’m giving this higher marks is because of the production process. Instead of just slapping together some barrels and putting out an oaky and rambunctious brandy, they actually took some time to thoughtfully develop the flavors by selecting appropriate barrel material, size, and maturation lengths that would accentuate the delicate grape components. It shows a level of care and understanding that I think comes through clearly in the finished product.
I’d love to see more of the grape flavors accentuated in the future. I’d also love to see a heavily oaked version of this. I think both would provide some delicious results — but for what we have today, I’m already perfectly happy. The high price tag is the biggest factor keeping it from getting that fifth star.
| Bethel Rd Distillery Orange Muscat Brandy Production Location: California, United States Classification: Brandy Aging: 0.25 Years Proof: 43% ABV Price: $70 / 750 ml Overall Rating:   |
Overall Rating: 4/5
An estate-grown brandy that really accentuates the grape fruit and tastes more like a white wine than a brandy.