Tasting notes

nose

cherry pie with a buttered cinnamon crust, candied ginger and lemon peel, with honey, caraway and a grassy edge

palate

grilled peach and baked apple, marzipan and gingerbread, then fennel, licorice and a surge of rye pepper

finish

very long; brown-butter baking spice, dark cherry and mint stay, drying through anise, raisin and eucalyptus to a last trace of roasted coffee

Mash bill

100% Brasetto rye. All of it is grown on a single family-owned farm in Texas, and Still Austin uses no grain from outside the state. Brasetto gives a rounder, softer spice than the traditional Abruzzi rye, so fruit and pastry notes carry through even at full barrel strength.

Awards

• Double Gold — San Francisco World Spirits Competition 2024

Why it's craft

Still Austin mills, mashes, distills and ages all of its whiskey at its distillery in South Austin, using only Texas-grown grain. This rye is made from the same all-Brasetto recipe as The Artist but is bottled at barrel strength instead of being slowly cut with water. Central Texas heat and sudden cold snaps push the spirit in and out of the oak faster than in cooler climates, which the distillery credits for how quickly its whiskey develops.