Many of the distilleries within the Lone Star State are committed to capturing the true spirit of Texas by sourcing everything in state — from water to 100 per cent Texas-grown grains and other key ingredients from local farms. Among the distilleries contributing to the success of the Texas whiskey boom is Still Austin Whiskey Co. The Austin, Texas-based company has a robust portfolio of incredible grain-to-glass whiskeys and an equally strong vision rooted in the city’s unique culture.
Still Austin sits at the Yard at St Elmo, a buzzy, mixed-use industrial warehouse development outside downtown Austin. Still Austin’s 10,000sq ft home is the first whiskey distillery in Austin city limits since Prohibition. Commendably, the massive state-of-the-art distillery was built with environmental sustainability in mind. The distillery is designed for water conservation and energy efficiency, with all of its energy stemming from renewable resources. Moreover, all spent grain is returned to local farmers for livestock feed. Still Austin’s dedication to sustainability is also the motivating factor behind its decision to produce only grain-to-glass whiskeys. It solely purchases 100 per cent Texas grain varieties from family-owned farms within the state. “Family-owned farms think about the land’s sustainability, and they want it to last for generations — and that’s super important to us. So, we make everything ourselves from grain to glass,” says Still Austin co-founder and CEO Chris Seals.
As for the delectable flavor notes signature to Still Austin’s award-winning whiskeys, we can thank Mother Nature for her assistance. The Central Texas region, where Still Austin is located, is known for its extreme weather conditions. As any local will tell you, especially when spring hits, you can experience four seasons in one week or even one day. The good thing is that these fluctuations cause Still Austin’s barrels to expand and contract erratically, allowing their whiskey to absorb the complex flavors of an oak bourbon barrel much more than whiskeys matured in other regions in the same amount of time.
Since launching in 2013, Still Austin has spent more than a decade fine-tuning its effort. “Ultimately, we really focused on the art of Texas whiskey. It’s an art form we’ve had to really define. We borrowed from a lot of traditions — from Cognac to Armagnac to Kentucky — but refining it, elevating it to the highest level possible, and bringing out the very best of what we can do here in Texas,” says Seals. “We’re trying to accomplish having a sense not only of the taste of our place, because we wanted it to be very authentic, but also give a sense of who we are as people and the people that we come from, so very vibrant and inclusive. We want to make whiskey for everyone, not just the traditional whiskey drinker.”
When visiting the distillery any day of the week, you see firsthand Still Austin’s “very vibrant and inclusive” mission come to life. Austinites and Texans from surrounding towns from all backgrounds and races can be seen sharing a dram or cocktail while soaking in live sounds from a local musician — the ultimate on-brand-for-Austin ambiance. Still Austin has become the fastest-growing whiskey in Texas, which is no easy feat considering that more than 500 whiskey brands are sold in retail chains statewide. And when you think about how Still Austin started with one father’s dream and a son’s skepticism, this achievement is even more mind blowing.
Upon retiring in 2012, Chris Seals’ father, Cleveland Seals, approached his son about his desire to open a craft bourbon distillery with his help. Seals, a former economist specializing in risk analysis, knew his father’s idea of opening a whiskey distillery in the center of Austin, Texas, was a gamble. “I looked at my dad’s idea and thought, ‘This is possibly the worst idea that has ever come across my desk,’” Seals says with a chuckle. “But I could tell my dad really wanted to spend time with me, and he was bored and in a late-life crisis. I said, ‘Why don’t we do a feasibility study on whether Austin can succeed with a craft bourbon distillery?’ I thought the answer to that study would be no, but at least we’ll bond and drink a lot of whiskey together. Then, we’ll come to our senses and decide this is a terrible idea.”
Little did he know they would soon encounter a curveball that would actually work in Papa Seals’ favor. About 10 years ago, state laws in Texas changed, making opening a craft bourbon distillery more achievable, alongside the emergence of the Texas whiskey category. “We thought, ‘Better lucky than smart!’ That’s how we got into it. From the very start, we decided we are going to take quality to a level that no one in Texas has ever taken it, and we’re going to elevate it to a ridiculous level,” Seals states.
Although Still Austin was founded in 2013, it would be another four years before the tasting room doors would open and the distilling process for their first whiskey would kick off. The Seals duo purchased a hand-built column still from world-renowned Scottish manufacturer Forsyths. This unique column still was the first from Forsyths to cross the Atlantic to America in the company’s centuries of operation. Beloved Nancy, the name given to this column still, helped make its incredible flagship bourbon, the Musician, which debuted in 2020.
Seals notes, “In the first year that the Musician released that SKU, it reached the top 10 top-selling whiskeys in Texas. It was amazing! We were astonished that people seemed to love our whiskey. So, it made us stay consistent and on top of the quality.”
The first 10 years of Still Austin have been exhilarating for locals in creative industries, especially visual artists and musicians. “Music is in our hearts. It’s a big part of what connects us. It goes beyond our personalities and inspires so much in us, and it’s a big part of what it is to be living in Austin, Texas. Music and whiskey go together. The musicians of Austin are a big part of who we are,” says Seals. From being the home of many music icons such as Willie Nelson and Gary Clark Jr to hosting two annual world-renowned events, Austin City Limits (ACL) and South by Southwest (SXSW), it’s fair to say music is a significant component of Austin’s DNA. Leaning into the locals’ innate hankering for live music, Still Austin’s spacious distillery also has an outdoor entertainment set-up where they host performances.
Still Austin partners with local artists to create the artwork on the labels of its limited Distillery Reserve Series releases. The company chose award-winning Austinite Marc Burckhardt as the official artist behind the labels of its flagship spirits. Burckhardt was tasked with painting a series of portraits that would give people an accurate first impression of Still Austin as a people and place. The Musician label resonated with the entire Still Austin team. Seals believes it was “the perfect way to express who we were”, adding, “One of the things I think is more than poetic about Still Austin is that we invite the creatives in our community to co-create our brand with us. We give them the space to show us what they can do. Just like with our team that can flex and show what they can do, the artists we work with amaze us. They’re everything we aspire to be.”
Besides the Musician, Still Austin’s other flagship expressions include the 100 per cent Texas-grown rye whiskey the Artist, the Naturalist, a gin crafted with 100 per cent Texas-grown grains and infused with 12 botanicals, and the cask strength versions of the Musician and the Artist.
Last summer, Still Austin unveiled its seasonal bottled-in-bond series. This exciting roll-out is a significant milestone for Still Austin since many American distilleries don’t qualify to release a bottled-in-bond spirit. Moreover, Still Austin is among only a handful of Texas-based distilleries approved to participate. The bottled-in-bond series comprises four limited-release whiskeys distilled to capture each season’s ingredients, flavors, and themes.
The series started with the flavorful summertime sipper, Red Corn Bourbon Whiskey, followed by the High Rye Bourbon Whiskey in fall 2023 and winter 2023’s Blue Corn Bourbon Whiskey. This series’ fourth and final bottle, Straight Rye Whiskey, a 100 per cent Texas-grown rye with spicy notes of peppercorn and candied ginger amid a velvety honey-sweet palate, will be available in April 2024.
Seals declares Still Austin’s head distiller, John Schrepel, is very gifted, particularly in envisioning tastes of the future. So, Schrepel had the fun assignment of experimenting with different grain varieties. For example, the Red Corn Bourbon Whiskey was crafted with Jimmy Red corn versus Bloody Butcher, which is usually the go-to for most distilleries. “When he began to experiment with these grain varieties and dial in a final mash bill, it tasted great. I was like, ‘This is delicious! Let’s make some, set it aside, and see what we want to do with it,’” says Seals. “Over the years, it continued to improve and had depth. I looked at how much money we spent on making these expensive and unusual grain variety whiskeys and thought, ‘Maybe we should’ve had more conversation because it’s going to take a long time before we can sell it.’ But as it turned out, five or so years later, after that first round of distillate, we’re worried about if we didn’t make enough!” A testament to Seals’ concern of not making enough to meet demand is this: the first three releases of the series quickly sold out.
One of the best aspects of witnessing the rise of Texas whiskey is seeing (and tasting) the inventive ways distillers and blenders approach conventional whiskey-making processes. Still Austin will release a brand-new whiskey at the end of this year. It will be a game changer for Texas whiskey makers and highlight how imaginative and savvy the American whiskey space has become.
Nancy Fraley, ‘the nose’ and master blender at Still Austin, has worked on developing the process for the new expression for more than 25 years. In English, this process would be called the little waters. In French, it’s called petites eaux. Bottom line: you can think of the little waters as a riff on slow water reduction, one of the maturation techniques used by Still Austin.
“The process of slow water reduction is something that we’ve been very committed to from the start. It’s a technique that Nancy taught us that’s taken from more ancient techniques of Armagnac,” says Seals. “It helps us bring out the best of Texas because we have a very hot climate and active maturation from all the expansion and contraction. The little waters is an evolution of this technique. So, instead of reducing bourbon with water, we reduce it with aged water.”
With slow water reduction, every so many months, closer to the end of a barrel’s maturation, a barrel is opened and a small amount of water is added before closing it and letting it continue to mature. So, it’s a slow way of adding water to a barrel. They’ll add water once, then wait a few months before repeating the process multiple times until they’re happy with the result. This process tends to make the whiskey’s mouthfeel round and delicate.
In contrast, the little waters technique starts with bottling most of a barrel’s whiskey while leaving some in the barrel. Next, the barrel is filled with water, resulting in a mostly water-filled barrel with a small amount of alcohol. Seals adds, “We bring that water content up to a ridiculously high level. All the remaining esters maturing in those barrels all this time come out. Esters is where most of our confectionery notes come from. We want to concentrate those and use them in a subsequent reduction of another barrel.” The result is a whiskey with more depth and a significantly longer finish. “The little waters, when used in a slow reduction, subsequently gives incredible heft to a whiskey. It can cut straight through a cigar. The flavor profile is truly magnificent. I’ve never tasted anything like it,” Seals adds.
The forthcoming expression using the little waters method will be called Tanager, named after the bird appearing on Still Austin’s flagship labels. The tanager migrates across Texas, which you don’t see daily. Regarding the unusual bird, Seals says, “Sometimes you must slow down to see something.” I get the inspirational one-liner, especially since this end-of-year release has been in the works for more than two decades — an extensive timespan requiring patience due to the little waters’ slow, meticulous process.
“Nancy has been developing this for so many years! It’s never really been done in bourbon before and certainly never done in Texas, and we’re finding that it works so much better in Texas with the climate,” Seals states. “If I were going to make a prediction, I’d say fast-forward 100 years, and I think the little waters is going to make a big impact on Texas and may eventually become what our state is known for in our contributions to the world of whiskey.”
