1 At press time, Eagle River Whisky proprietor Spence Neubauer had blueprints and all the permits he needed in place for the Whisky Cabin, a tiny home he plans to build, then tow out to an empty lot on Minturn’s Main Street as a placeholder for a full-scale tasting room/speakeasy and production facility scheduled to open by spring of 2025. Until then, by the time you’re reading this, you should be able sip a dram of the distillery’s signature Scottish-style Dowds single malt like a local bypassing the mountain town housing crisis by embracing #vanlife. 

2 Aspen may have Stranahan’s Whiskey Lodge, a tony new restaurant that opened across from Wagner Park in March to celebrate the Denver distillery’s 20th anniversary. But the brand also threw a bone to Vail last winter with the Stranahan’s Barrel Lounge Experience,  a pop-up private tasting room in the lobby of The Four Seasons. The Experience ($60 per person; 970-477-8600) includes charcuterie paired with multiple varieties of American single malt, and cocktails crafted by Remedy Lounge’s mixologist, in a giant oak stave barrel with glass doors.

3 The hottest (and coolest) new place in the valley to unwind with drinks this summer? That’d be One Rooftop Bar, a cocktail lounge that opened in March high atop the latest addition to Avon’s Westin Riverfront Lodge. To best savor the raptor’s-eye view of Beaver Creek’s world-famous downhill, the “it” drink to order is the Birds of Prey, a melange of egg, orange muscat wine, cognac, agave, orange bitters, and scented pine, served in a porcelain goblet resembling a cracked ostrich egg nested in a fog-shrouded coaster.