Christian Pèpe’s distillery in Marina, and the only one on the Monterey Peninsula. He makes the spirits behind our cocktails at Vesuvio and Bar Napoli.
Corn-based and gluten free. Made with vapor management, a rare way to run a still. More on Doc’s Vodka
At Vesuvio and Bar Napoli. Bottles sold only at our restaurants.
Made for our bars
DPL Liqueurs and Distillates
Small batches Christian makes for one reason: our cocktails.
D’Anjou pear, elderflower, hibiscus and Indian ginger liqueurs. Bitter Italiano.
He makes all the bitters for our bars, too. We don’t carry any other brand.
For collectors and spirits enthusiasts, a few bottles are for sale at Bar Napoli. Very limited. Ask the bartender. Not sold online, yet.
Barrel-finished cocktails
The bottles
Christian mixes each cocktail, then rests it in used oak barrels for 3 to 6 months. Bottled at cask strength, 28 to 38% alc./vol., 750 ml. Open, pour, stir, enjoy.
Kentucky bourbon
Old Fashioned
Rested 3 to 6 months in Caribbean rum barrels.
Milk caramel, citrus peel, black cherry.
Tasting notes
In the bottle
Kentucky bourbon, cane sugar and Angostura bitters, infused with navel orange peel and Montmorency cherries.
Nose
Vanilla, orange zest, holiday spice.
Palate
Milk caramel, citrus peel, black cherry.
Finish
Charred oak, cinnamon, clove.
Serve
On the rocks, or stirred and strained. Garnish with a cherry and an orange peel.
A limited release. The reserve barrel is never fully emptied, so every bottle carries a trace of every batch before it.
Kentucky rye
Rye Old Fashioned
From the reserve barrel. Prohibition-era style.
95 points · Gold Medal · Beverage Testing Institute
Vanilla cola, ginger, dark caramel, butterscotch.
Tasting notes
In the bottle
Kentucky rye whiskey, cane sugar and Angostura bitters.
Nose
Caramel, fresh cigar, grilled peach.
Palate
Vanilla cola, ginger, dark caramel, butterscotch.
Finish
Milk chocolate, clove.
Serve
On the rocks, or stirred and strained.
On our menus at Vesuvio and Bar Napoli.
Kentucky rye
Rye Manhattan
From the reserve barrel.
Brown sugar, spiced apple, black pepper.
Tasting notes
In the bottle
Kentucky rye whiskey, our own Italian-style sweet vermouth and Angostura bitters.
Nose
Dark chocolate, cinnamon smoke, vanilla pods, clove.
Palate
Brown sugar, spiced apple, black pepper.
Finish
Dark roast coffee, molasses, cardamom.
Serve
Stir with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with an Amarena cherry or a fresh lemon twist.
On our menus at Vesuvio and Bar Napoli.
DPL Espresso Liqueur
Cold brew, cacao and vanilla
It starts with Pèpe Espresso: custom espresso beans, roasted locally. Christian infuses the beans in neutral spirit with raw cacao and Madagascar vanilla beans. In a separate vessel, he brews a massive batch of cold brew from the same beans, freshly ground.
When both are ready, he combines them with raw demerara sugar. It’s slow work. You won’t find an espresso liqueur like it anywhere else.
Doc’s Vodka and Christian’s espresso liqueur, both from the Lab. Balanced, not cloying. The #1 seller at The Starlight Lounge at Vesuvio, winner of Best Cocktails in the Carmel Pine Cone’s Golden Pine Cones.
Christian distills it from corn, so it’s gluten free, on a custom reflux column of his own design. He built it to perform the fabled “vapor management” technique of distillation. As far as we know, no other vodka on the market is made this way.
Try it in the Dirty Doc
Doc’s Vodka, house olive, pickle and pepperoncini brine, rosemary olive oil, blue cheese olives.
Vesuvio
Bar Napoli
Bottles only at our restaurants
Tito’s is also made from corn. Ask your bartender to try them side by side. One of them will make you make the Tito’s face.
How Doc’s Vodka is made
Vapor management: why Doc’s Vodka is so pure
The short version: Christian splits the spirit while it is still vapor, before it can condense and remix. Impurities stay out, only the clean middle of the run becomes vodka, and it comes out remarkably smooth and neutral.
Vodka distillation is about purity. Both stills below use a reflux column to strip out impurities. The difference is where the spirit gets split. Liquid management splits the liquid after it condenses. Vapor management splits the vapor before it condenses.
As far as we know, Doc’s Vodka is the only vodka on the market made with vapor management.
Why don’t more distillers do it? Vapor management needs a skinny packed column, not the massive plated columns big distilleries run. It doesn’t scale. That means Doc’s Vodka will always be small batch, made carefully, by hand.
Liquid management
All the vapor condenses at the top. A valve then splits the liquid: some goes back down the column as reflux, some comes off as vodka.
Vapor management Doc’s Vodka
Below the top condenser, a ball valve splits the vapor itself. A set share goes to the product condenser and becomes vodka. The rest goes to the top condenser and runs back down as reflux. The result is a superior vodka with virtually no impurities.
Vapor Liquid Where the split happens
How vapor management works
Rising vapor. Alcohol vapor rises up the column and concentrates into a clean, neutral spirit.
The vapor split. A ball valve sits below the top condenser and splits the vapor stream itself.
The ratio. A precise share of the vapor goes to the product condenser to become vodka. The rest goes to the top condenser and returns down the column as reflux. Because the ratio never drifts, the separation stays clean from the first drop to the last.
Reflux ratio through a run
A steady ratio means steady separation, and that is what keeps the vodka pure. Each dot is a hand adjustment of the valve. Illustration of the principle, not measured data.
Liquid managementVapor management
Where the split happensIn the liquid, after it condensesIn the vapor, before it condenses
Reflux ratio during the runDrifts as the alcohol in the boiler dropsHolds steady from start to finish
Running the stillConstant valve adjustmentsAdjusts itself to temperature changes
End of the runHas to be slowed by handSlows on its own, keeping the harsh last part out
Keeping the good part onlyHarsh first and last parts of the run can bleed into the good middleOnly the clean middle of the run becomes vodka
Impurities (congeners)More can carry over into the spiritVirtually none
TasteHarder to keep consistently smoothRemarkably smooth and neutral, no harsh bite
Why it makes a better vodka
Purity. The reflux ratio stays steady for the whole run, so trace impurities (congeners) separate cleanly. The result is a remarkably smooth, neutral vodka.
Stability. A liquid management still needs its valve adjusted again and again as the boiler runs down. Vapor management adjusts itself, and the run slows on its own at the end, so the harsh first and last parts of the run stay out of the vodka.
Only the good part. Every run has a harsh start, a clean middle and a heavy, oily end. Because the vapor is split before it can condense and mix back together, only the clean middle becomes Doc’s Vodka.
The Doc
Christian Pèpe
Christian came home after college to help open Vesuvio in 2011. It was our first restaurant with a full bar, and the bar is what hooked him.
He started the Lab in Monterey with barrel-aged cocktails, then moved it to Marina and began distilling. In 2021 Vino Napoli, our tasting room inside Little Napoli, added a full bar to pour more of his work. That’s when it became Bar Napoli.
Today he oversees the bar program at Vesuvio and Little Napoli.
Best Bartender · Golden Pine Cones
Carmel-by-the-Sea
Where to drink it
Vesuvio
543 6th Ave
The downstairs bar and The Starlight Lounge, our rooftop.
Doc Pèpe’s Lab is Christian Pèpe’s own company and works closely with The Pèpe Family. Please drink responsibly. You must be 21 or older to drink or buy.
 scale(0.79) translate(-42 -164.6)%22%3E%3Cpath fill=%22%230A0F1C%22 d=%22M 25.421875 147.695312 L 25.421875 161.394531 L 53.164062 161.394531 C 56.96875 161.394531 58.714844 160.695312 58.714844 157.292969 L 58.714844 151.792969 C 58.714844 148.394531 56.96875 147.695312 53.164062 147.695312 Z M 13.296875 138.792969 L 58.714844 138.792969 C 66.832031 138.792969 70.632812 141.59375 70.632812 148.796875 L 70.632812 160.296875 C 70.632812 167.496094 66.832031 170.296875 58.714844 170.296875 L 25.421875 170.296875 L 25.421875 190.398438 L 13.296875 190.398438 Z M 13.296875 138.792969 %22/%3E%3C/g%3E%3C/svg%3E){kind=small}