If you’ve noticed an increase in Texas whiskey coverage here at Robb Report in recent months, that’s because there’s been a whole to cover. And it’s not just that the playing field continues to expand—the whiskey coming out of distilleries in the state is, more often than not, very good. One of the best of the bunch is Still Austin, a small craft distillery that just released its fourth bottled-in-bond whiskey, and this is definitely one worth seeking out.
Still Austin, which as you can guess is located in Austin, is a decade old now. That puts it into the middle age tier of craft whiskey distilleries, not quite as old as the OGs but it’s been around longer than some of the young’uns. That pedigree means that the distillery is able to release some properly aged whiskey, and as is often the case when a distillery has been around for this long, bottled-in-bond expressions. As a reminder, that designation means the whiskey is at least four years old, bottled at exactly 100 proof, and the product of one distillery and one distilling season. This new rye whiskey is the fourth release in Still Austin’s Bottled in Bond series—the three previous expressions were all bourbons made from different mashbills of red corn, blue corn, and a high-rye recipe.
Still Austin Bottled in Bond Straight Rye Whiskey’s mashbill is 100 percent Texas-grown rye grain. That’s in keeping with the distillery’s commitment to using local grains grown in the Lone Star State, including corn, wheat and barley. That mashbill is not necessarily unusual, but it differs from the commonly found 95/5 rye-barley whiskeys you’ll find from MGP or the just over 51 percent rye “barely legal” whiskeys coming out of Kentucky. What separates this new whiskey from Still Austin’s core rye is that it’s a little older and has a higher ABV, and those variations had a big impact on the whiskey. Despite the fact that there is only rye in the mashbill, the…