After a full day of shredding down Killington's 73 miles of trails, many skiers and riders are ready for a drink. At Still on the Mountain, that drink could be a flight of old-fashioneds served on a wooden tasting board with the mountain's image carved into it, trails and all.

The cocktail bar and restaurant in the Mountain Inn lives up to its name: Just past the Snowshed Lodge's second parking lot, it has a front-row view of Killington's imposing peaks. But the name is also a nod to the shiny copper still in the connected Killington Distillery — visible through a large window — where all the bar's spirits are made.

When it opened in late summer 2020, the property became just the second hotel-distillery combo in the United States — and the first in New England, said Caroline Wise, who owns all three of the technically distinct businesses: Killington Distillery, Still on the Mountain and the Mountain Inn. "But it's really cool that if you come and stay, it's all here," Wise said.

During ski season, the 49-room hotel is usually full. This week, with Presidents' Day and school vacation for many out-of-staters, is the busiest of the year. But you don't have to stay at the Mountain Inn to take in its spirit — or its spirits. Guests and visitors alike can sample Mediterranean-inspired pub food and live music at Still on the Mountain, stock up in the distillery's bottle shop, or sip a warm cocktail and enjoy après s'mores around a firepit. Heck, you can even dine in a refurbished Skyeship gondola — heated in the winter, air-conditioned in the summer.

Killington Distillery is making its mark all over Vermont: As of fall 2022, its vodka, Maple Cask bourbon and Woodland Gin can be found at 802 Spirits stores. Those products are featured on front racks in 10 of the state-contracted liquor stores through March, along with cocktail recipe cards.

"The spirits are really our No. 1 thing," Wise said. "The distillery is what creates a unique experience for our guests."

Raised in Massachusetts, Wise has been skiing at Killington her whole life. She worked in hospitality technology before purchasing the Mountain Inn in 2019 with her father, real estate developer Jack Wise. The hotel was still running at the time, but its attached restaurant, Santa Fe Steakhouse, had been vacant for roughly three years, she said. The pair embarked on a complete renovation.

As she imagined the project's final form, Wise thought of Vermont's craft beer reputation. A brewery near the mountain made sense, she recalled thinking, but that market was feeling oversaturated. Killington already had a brewery at the time, and Long Trail Brewing is less than 20 minutes away in Bridgewater Corners.

Through market research, Wise learned that spirits were on an upward trajectory, especially among younger legal drinkers. "That's how we ended up in the spirits industry: It's something different for the area," she said. "And I love building a product, whether it's a technology product or a physical product."

The stills were due to arrive just days after Gov. Phil Scott called a state of emergency in March 2020. Construction continued through the early pandemic lockdown, albeit slowly. The distillery's target opening date was delayed four months, but that gave head distiller Ryan Bremser time to develop various spirits with care.

Bremser came to Killington Distillery from the beer and kombucha industries in New York State. To meet the needs of the on-site restaurant and cocktail bar, he was tasked with crafting the full gamut of spirits. Besides the three products distributed through state liquor stores, that includes VTQuila Blanco, an agave spirit; coconut vodka; bourbon; Snowshoe White Rum; citrus-forward Summer Gin; and the limited-release 4241 Blended Whiskey Series, named for the height of Killington Peak. Thanks to his brewing background, Bremser also makes a mean hard seltzer, which is available in rotating flavors on tap at Still on the Mountain.

The Killington Distillery team sources Vermont ingredients as much as possible, Wise said. That philosophy shines in its popular Maple Cask bourbon, which is aged with maple syrup from a farm up the road "to bring out the Vermont essence and tie in the mountain," she explained.

Pot-distilled Woodland Gin includes botanicals from farther afield, such as Italian juniper and Californian lemon peel, but it also features blue spruce tips in a nod to the local landscape. Bartenders at Still on the Mountain joke that they're foraged from the top of Killington.

That was one of the many engaging details that restaurant manager Jared Nugent shared with my table of four on a recent Thursday evening. I had hoped to dine in one of the property's refurbished gondolas, which sit front and center on the patio and seem like they could head right up the mountain. But at well below zero, even the gondola's heater and a pile of blankets couldn't make dining outdoors feasible.

Luckily, Still on the Mountain's dining room has a great view of the resort, even at night. We watched the lights of snowcats zip around the mountain while listening to live music from Red Daisy Revival float in from the bar. Though we hadn't been skiing, the après cocktail flights proved irresistible.

The gin and tonic flight ($25) and the old-fashioned flight ($28) both featured three mini cocktails. After sipping our way through the boozy trios, my dining companions and I agreed that they were closer to full pours.

"It tastes like you're skiing through the woods," Nugent said of the Woodland Gin, one of three offerings in the gin and tonic flight. Its complexity came through beside the crisp, more floral Summer Gin; Woodland was also slightly sweeter than the third offering, the distillery's take on a traditional London Dry. (A gin and tonic made with Woodland Gin and housemade tonic water is available on tap.)

Like most new distilleries, Killington Distillery is largely sourcing its whiskeys from elsewhere. Bremser "rectifies" those base products by adding ingredients such as the maple syrup, aging in different barrels or blending to achieve his desired flavor profile. Most of the whiskey distilled on-site is still too young to sell; two batches are aging in barrels of various char levels behind the bar.

The old-fashioned flight was a tasty tour through the whiskey lineup, including the distillery's straightforward bourbon, which is 21 percent rye and aged at least three years in new American oak casks. The old-fashioneds had no added sugar, Nugent explained, so that the character and flavor of each whiskey could shine through. That made the Maple Cask the sweetest, thanks to the local syrup that ages along with the bourbon, but not too sweet.

"The Maple Cask is the first thing I drank when I moved to Vermont, even before water," Nugent said with a laugh.

An old-fashioned made with the limited-edition 4241 Blended Whiskey Series offered a hint of what's to come: Some of the distillery's own rye, a 5-month-old single malt, was part of the blend.

That blend changes every 250 bottles or so, Wise explained, calling the 4241 series "almost a collectible." It's only sold at Still on the Mountain, in the inn's bottle shop, through the distillery's website, and at Rutland and Woodstock farmers markets in the summer.

Still on the Mountain's bar is stocked almost solely with Killington Distillery's products, supplemented with a few liqueurs and finishing touches from elsewhere.

"If you go to a brewery, you don't have other beer," Wise said. "So we don't carry other spirits."

Besides the flights, my group took Wise's advice and ordered several cocktails. We passed around sips of the Last Chair ($16), with Woodland Gin, allspice dram, a dash of bitters and fresh-squeezed orange juice; the Blackberry Bourbon Smash ($15), which the menu described as "drawing bears out of hibernation since the Ice Age"; and an alcohol-free strawberry lemonade ($5 without vodka, $14 with).

To pair with our bevy of beverages, we ordered shareable starters: huge Downhill Wings ($22 for a large order), half coated in a dry rub and half in maple-bourbon barbecue sauce; and a flatbread of the day ($14), topped with bacon, prosciutto and tomatoes. We also each chose a sandwich from chef Dustin Dyer's Mediterranean-influenced menu. My chicken gyro ($22) was stuffed with perfectly grilled chicken, lettuce, tomato, red onion, feta and kalamata olives and slathered with a very tangy tzatziki.

After all that food and drink, we wished we'd booked spots at the inn for the night. Wise had taken me on a tour earlier that day, showing off a cozy balcony king room, a coworking space, ski lockers, a game room, a gym and an outdoor pool heated to 100 degrees in the winter. There's even a state-of-the-art bike room to accommodate the area's booming summertime mountain bike scene.

With so much to do and taste, I'm planning a return visit. Next time, if it's not historically cold, I'm determined to eat in one of the gondolas.