By Mike Cisneros
In this space last year, I wrote that Texas whiskies had arrived, that they had reached a maturity and complexity that allowed them to stand alongside the best whiskies in the world. All of that was true, of course. But in rereading last year’s article in preparation for writing this one, I may have given readers the impression that I was saying Texas whiskies had peaked, that they had climbed the mountain and stood in glorious victory at the apex of their craft.
And that is not true.
In fact, the whiskies that made our 6th Annual Drinking Texas Whiskey of the Year list have brought us to the realization that we are all standing at the beginning of a Whiskey Renaissance. A Golden Age, if you will, where craftsmanship and imagination are taking the art to places inconceivable to previous generations. (I’m pretty sure that word means what I think it means …).
This ain’t your Pawpaw’s whiskey.
Picking favorites and making “Best of” lists is always a difficult endeavor. When we made our first Whiskey of the Year list back in 2019, we made a concerted effort to review bottles that our readers could get their hands on. What use was it, we figured, to tell you about an amazing whiskey that was unavailable for purchase anywhere, or could only be had for hundreds of dollars? It was a noble idea, but one whose time has passed.
In 2020, there were few high-proof offerings in the state. There were no Bottled in Bond whiskeys. There weren’t enough finished bourbons, seasonal offerings, collaborations, or distillers select bottles to justify those categories. Today, there are so many releases, many of them limited, that it would be a disservice to not mention them. Add to that so many of these unique releases are so damn good … you can see how we ended up with list that we have.
All Texas whiskies were eligible for consideration, but they have to be tasted by us during one of our weekly Drinking Texas Radio Shows, so we obviously weren’t able to get to every one of them. It wasn’t for lack of trying; it’s a mathematically impossible task (We’re not sure how, exactly, because we’re really not that strong at math), though a task we enjoy taking on. There are some bottles that are so limited-run that they are gone before we can get our hands on them, others that are available only on-site at distant distilleries, and still others are just too far out of our price range to be able to buy. In the end, we tasted approximately 70 different Texas whiskies this past year and feel like we have a strong list of winners that will be hard to argue against. Our winners were all eventually obvious to us. We mostly picked the ones we kept going back to over and over throughout the year as well as some special editions that really blew us away. We classified our winners in certain categories, though many of the winners qualified in more than one category. Still, each whiskey seemed to be the best one for the category in which we placed it.
Of course, we realize that the best whiskey is the one you like to drink, served the way you like it. There is no wrong way to drink your whiskey. We’ve always agreed with that sentiment, but typing it out like that, it sounds as true as “Laughter is the best medicine,” when we all know it’s Ozempic. The best whiskies are the ones listed below. At least for this year. Go ahead and serve them the way you like …
EVENT
Milam and Greene “The Answer” Bourbon (Blanco), 117.3 proof (Texas), 108.3 proof (Kentucky). Mashbill 70% corn, 22% malted rye, 8% malted barley. Aged 5 years, 4 months in Blanco, TX, or Bardstown, KY. The two 375 ml bottles are sold side by side in one box.
Readers who have checked out our four previous Whiskey of the Year articles will notice that “The Answer” has won a category that did not appear in any previous versions of this list. That’s because this limited-edition bourbon has done something no previous whiskey has ever attempted to do. It challenges the perception that whiskeys from Kentucky are inherently better than those from Texas. “The Answer” is really a scientific experiment on the importance of climate and its effect on the final flavor of the whiskey.
“This was a five-and-a-half-year project and so much fun for us to see the progress and development throughout,” said Master Distiller Marlene Holmes. “We want people to not only enjoy the taste of our whiskey, but also to have an experience. That was the whole premise on which The Answer was conceived.”
The bourbon is enjoyable. It uses Milam and Greene’s standard mashbill which features malted rye instead of traditional (unmalted) rye. While raw rye provides sharp flavors like black pepper, clove, citrus peel, and grassy herbal notes, the malting process introduces Maillard Reaction – the type of chemical reaction that browns toast. The result is an earthiness and nuttiness, sweeter notes like honey, caramel, and chocolate, and a creamier texture or mouthfeel. Malting the rye also releases additional sugars to assist in the fermentation.
The Answer was distilled and barreled at Bardstown’s facility and half the barrels were aged in Bardstown with the other half aged in Blanco. We all know that Texas weather is harsher and more extreme than Kentucky’s, but there’s never been a consensus on what that means for Texas whiskey vs. Kentucky juice. Now we have The Answer. Apart from the two bottles containing exactly the same whiskey from the same batch, barreled at 115 proof and aged the same amount of time, they have nothing in common. The Texas version is nearly 9 proof points higher and much darker than the Kentucky version (117.3 vs 108.3). That’s because the intense Texas heat caused more water to evaporate and more tannins to be pulled from the wood than the Kentucky barrels. And they have different flavor profiles.
The Texas bottle is a deep mahogany color with a baking sweet nose with notes of banana, milk chocolate, caramel, vanilla, and oak. The first thing on the palette is oak, followed by intense rye spice, dark chocolate, and caramel, with accompanying flavors of cinnamon, almonds, nutmeg, black pepper, clove, and dry leather. Adding water opens more of the softer notes, especially the almonds and nutmeg.
The Kentucky bottle is a honey gold color with a lighter sweet nose of brown sugar, caramel, cherry, and oak. The taste is mellower with vanilla, nougat, corn, cherry, apple, and pear all competing for attention; oak, clove, and cocoa are there in the background. Adding water doesn’t seem to change the profile.
Milam and Greene proved what they set out to prove with this whiskey, but they have stopped short of declaring any winner in this experiment. In fact, Heather Greene, part owner and master blender for Milam and Greene, says the best way to drink The Answer is to try the Texas bottle, then the Kentucky bottle, then pour a blend of the two bottles, perhaps in a couple of different concentrations, and judge for yourself.
But we at Drinking Texas know the real answer …
BOURBON
Garrison Brothers Sonora Bourbon finished in Rye Casks (Hye), 108 proof. Mashbill 74% corn, 15% wheat, and 11% malted barley. Aged 7 years: 4 years in American Oak then 3 years in Rye whiskey barrels. Technically, every Garrison Brothers whiskey is a wheated whiskey as they all begin as Garrison Brothers Small Batch, with that mashbill and four years spent in new oak barrels. What makes the various Garrison expressions unique is how they are finished. Sonora is the newest flavor, named after the Caverns of Sonora, a cave system near the town of Sonora, Texas, that is famous for its helictite crystal formations.
Sonora is also a tribute to the women of Garrison Brothers Distillery. Master Distiller Donnis Todd assisted distilling team member Samantha Olvera on this project. According to the company website, “Olvera has been a leader within the Garrison Brothers distilling team for the last seven years and is also the first female Latina in Texas to craft bourbon from grain to glass.” According to founder Nancy Garrison, “Sonora celebrates the natural beauty of Texas, the legacy of Garrison Brothers Distillery, and the women who are shaping the future of hand-crafted bourbon.”
The bottle does its part recognizing pioneering women with a special etching of a female in cowboy hat and long rider’s coat added to its star emblem, and also in honoring nature’s beauty as $5 of every bottle sold goes to the Texas Cave Management Association benefitting the Caverns of Sonora.
Apart from all of that, the whiskey is fantastic. The nose is woody and sweet – oak and tanned leather mingle with vanilla, butterscotch, brown sugar, and sweet buttered corn. The flavors start sweet before finishing spicy – I’m hit immediately with vanilla frosted cupcake, custard, wildflower honey, and cinnamon before turning to white peppercorn, black pepper, and a soft rye spice. The finish returns to sweet with a lasting crème brulee note. Adding water instantly cools the alcohol “burn,” something I didn’t notice was there at 108 proof, until with a few drops of water it was completely gone. It doesn’t change the tasting notes, it makes them sweeter.
WHEAT
Banner Wheat Whiskey Double Barrel Barrel Strength (Manor), 138.7 proof. Mashbill 95% soft red winter wheat and 5% malted barley. Aged 8.9 years in two distinct types of barrels – new charred American White Oak barrels (small, five-gallon barrels where the high surface area-to-liquid ratio and intense central Texas heat extracts color and flavor from the wood quickly), and toasted oak barrels (finished in heavily toasted barrels designed to add top notes of vanilla, caramel, and pepper spice without the heavy, smoky char of the first barrel). The Double Barrel process is designed to give the whiskey its color and flavor (first barrel) then enhance it, adding a creamier texture and sweeter aromatics (second barrel) that are not possible in a Single Barrel expression.
This is the third different Banner expression to be named a Drinking Texas Whiskey of the Year, and it will be the last. Banner – the first distillery to produce a Texas Made wheat whiskey – stopped production after bottling this run, ending a passion project that began 14 years ago.
Banner is truly a craft distillery with basically a two-man staff – founders Logan Simpson and Tony Jimenez – engineers who threw themselves into their “hobby” and purchased the land, designed and hand-built the stills (both stainless steel and copper), grind the grain, make the mash, barrel the distillate, and run the bottling line. Banner Wheat Whiskey is grain-to-glass, or as they call it, “Mill to Still,” with the ingredients plainly visible from the front porch of the distillery (except for the malted barley which comes from the Dallas area). They are the only distillery that uses 100% Texas rainwater to proof their whiskey, though none is used in this full proof expression. The Double Barrel is the first Banner whiskey to be sold in 750 ml bottles. Our bottle is Batch #1, Bottle #11.
This is Banner’s highest-proof offering. It’s not for the weak; those used to 80- to 90-proof bourbons will not like this, but high-proof sippers will find it thrilling and those who line up for Garrison Brothers’ annual Cowboy Bourbon release will find it irresistible. A tasting tip – beware the Banner Bearhug – a local version of the famous Kentucky Hug – that can take your breath away on the first sip if you aren’t prepared.
The color is stunning – a dark raw umber that actually looks like merlot at first glance, until swirling the bottle reveals the yellow/gold highlights. The nose is complicated, more rich than sweet though vanilla caramel can be distinctly discerned – with enough ethanol to singe the nostrils. The first sip coats the mouth, which makes it possible thereafter to identify notes of caramelized sugar, cereal grain, heavy oak, ripe green apple, butter, pecan, pepper, vanilla, tobacco, and anise on the palate. Adding water changes the flavor, a few drops accentuating the tannic notes (wood, leather, tobacco), a few more drops bringing out the sweet notes (apple/pear, sugar, vanilla).
RYE
Still Austin Bottle-in-Bond Straight Rye (Austin), 100 proof. Mashbill 100% Texas rye, aged 4 years. In the summer of 2023, Still Austin introduced a quarterly Bottled-in-Bond series that releases a different limited-edition whiskey for each season of the year. Springtime brings the rye. It conforms to the Federal Bottled-in-Bond Act of 1897 which mandates a whiskey must be created at a single distillery in a single season under a single distiller, aged for a minimum of four years in a federally bonded warehouse using new American oak barrels, and bottled at 100 proof. Originally the Act was intended to prevent fraud and insure that bonded whiskey met a certain standard. Today, it’s really more an opportunity for distilleries to showcase their master distiller, process, and season.
Head Distiller John Schrepel picked rye for the Spring release, using the bright spice to evoke feelings of new beginnings, bold ideas, and fresh perspectives. Essentially, a taste of Spring. The whiskey is proofed in the barrel using a “slow water” process: Instead of aging a cask strength whiskey and then proofing with water at the end, water is added each month to dilute the whiskey as it ages. This reduces the alcohol content to the desired level without diminishing any of the flavors coming from the barrel.
As with all Still Austin products, the label is a painting by Marc Burkhardt. The Spring Bottled-in-Bond label features a rabbit in a field of rye, symbols of fertility, abundance, and new life. according to Burkhardt, “The paintings tell the story behind these unique whiskies, relating seasons, flavors, and animals with the experience of these spirits. It’s always a pleasure working with Still Austin—responding to one art with another.”
Sunny copper in color, the seasonal rye is about one shade darker than the year-round, two-year-old “The Artist” rye. The nose starts fruit-forward with hints of cherry cobbler, nectarine, and citron, then mellows with notes of honey, cocoa powder, rye bread, and light oak. The longer the pour sits, the more the scent of rye grain dominates. The smooth, medium mouthfeel carries a bright, sweet, and spicy taste to the front of the tongue. Notes of hot honey, dried candied ginger, cola, tea, peach, pepper, and rye each take their turn, but the taste remains bright throughout. The finish is a bit short, leading you to want another sip quickly. Adding water seems to bring the rye spice forward, making the sweetness take a back seat.
SINGLE MALT
Irene Tan Spirits Co. Cigar Malt American Single Malt Whiskey (Blanco), 118 proof. A blend of two Single Malt whiskies using a mashbill of 100% malted barley. Aged 3.2 years in toasted new American Oak and used Pedro Ximenez Sherry casks. This unique whiskey is the first collaboration between Andalusia Whiskey Company’s Ty Phelps and Master Blender Irene Tan (@whiskeymentors), who also hints that there are more collaborations to come. The blend is an 80/20 mixture of Peachwood Smoked Barley Single Malt and Heavily Peated Revenant Oak Single Malt (Andalusia’s flagship Irish Peated Single Malt). I know it sounds like more than a “single” malt going on here, but American Single Malt whiskey just became an officially recognized category by the US Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) in late 2024 and this bottle meets the TTB’s distinguishing standards of identity: The mashbill must be made of 100% malted barley; distilled entirely at one distillery; mashed, distilled, and aged in the United States; distilled at no higher than 160 proof; bottled at no lower than 80 proof; and matured in oak casks not exceeding 700 liters.
We have entered a golden age of American Single Malt whiskies. While the official category is new, Texas distillers like Balcones, Acre, Spirit of Texas, and Andalusia (to name a few) have been making malt whiskies for years. But unlike the Scotch and Irish whiskies that invented the style and are bound by hundreds of years of tradition, Texas distillers revel in the freedom and flexibility that experimenting with a young category allows. That’s where this Cigar Malt comes from. It uses a unique and complex barrel aging to bring out different flavor notes from the different woods; it uses barley smoked over peach wood for a delicate, fruit-forward sweetness and Irish peat for an earthy, vegetal smokiness; and it has been crafted to complement the complex flavors of a premium cigar. And because it was aged here in Blanco, TX, it is fully mature at just over 3 years.
The word Cigar is what attracted us to this bottle. We love cigars with whiskies. In fact, we spend way too much time searching for Cigar Blend Bourbons and are just one Powerball ticket away from trying every one of them. A Cigar Malt sounded amazing and this one hits all the notes. It’s got a rich and deep flavor with dark fruit notes that won’t be overpowered by a good cigar. It’s high proof which gives the whiskey a richer mouthfeel that ensures the flavors remain through cigar smoke. And the fact that Irene Tan is a whiskey blender with a background in fine wine means the smokiness, fruit sweetness, and tannic notes are all perfectly paired for a My Father La Opulencia or Oliva Serie V Melanio. This is a limited-edition whiskey and of this writing is available only at Andalusia in Blanco and at Tan’s Canterbury Liquors in Connecticut.
The color is dark and rich, a sort of treacle with orange highlights. The nose is light for a smoked whiskey; you smell the sweet malt and a slight smoke, but also some dark fruit and chocolate notes as well. Neat, it feels thick and oily and coats the mouth and starts with a pleasant smokiness followed by dark dried fruits like prune, cherry, and currant. It doesn’t get too sweet as dark, spicy chocolate arrives to keep it balanced. The finish mellows to a cashew nuttiness which leaves you ready for the next sip or the next puff of cigar … Adding water doesn’t really do anything; all the notes that were there before are still there though the fruits seem a touch sweeter.
BOTTLED IN BOND
TX Single Barrel Bottled in Bond Straight Bourbon (Fort Worth), 100 proof. Mashbill is an undisclosed combination of corn, wheat, and malted barley. It is fermented with TX Whiskey’s proprietary strain of yeast captured from a single Texas pecan. Aged 4+ years. It adheres to the Bottled in Bond Act of 1897 which was enacted by the McKinley Administration to restore public faith in whiskey production which had fallen victim to artificial coloring, additives, and dilution. To be Bottled in Bond, the spirit must be distilled in a single season by a single distiller at a single distillery, it must be bottled at 100 proof, and it must be aged a minimum of 4 years in a federally bonded warehouse under US government supervision. Our bottle was distilled in 2021 and barrel-picked (6613) by Spec’s.
This bourbon is unique in several ways. First, TX (formerly Firestone & Robertson) was the first Texas distillery to produce a Bottled in Bond bourbon, way back in 2021. Second, it’s a wheated bourbon, one of only two such Bottled in Bond Texas bourbons that we are aware of. Third, it’s a Single Barrel Bottled in Bond, again one of just two that we know to exist. Fourth, the grains are all grown by a single 4th-generation Texas farmer, making it a Grain to Glass product. And fifth, how about that unique Texas pecan yeast … Each barrel represents a unique combination of maturation effects due to Texas’ erratic and wildly fluctuating weather, and the flavor will vary from barrel to barrel, with no two barrels being exactly alike.
It is the color of straw. The nose is rich and sweet with notes of candied dates, raisins, and brandied cherries, followed by sugary notes of chocolate malt and circus peanuts; there are no dark notes to speak of. It drinks lighter than its 100 proof, but it has a lot of depth and flavor. We’ve seen where other, more experienced whiskey reviewers compare it to drinking a wine. We don’t drink wine (our reasons are our own), but we do get a gentle fruity flavor – maybe green grape, possibly ripe apple, probably fresh pear; there is also cereal grain, walnut (or pecan), almond, and a touch or black pepper. Traditional vanilla and oak might be found if you are searching for it. Adding water dulls the range of flavors and makes the sweetness more pronounced.
BARREL PROOF/CASK STRENGTH
Devils River Single Barrel Bourbon (San Antonio), 126.6 proof. One of only two of the distillery’s expressions that does not use Devils River’s standard bourbon mashbill (75% corn, 21% Brasetto rye, 4% malted barley); instead, it uses the 100% Texas Grain Mash Bill, an undisclosed ratio of corn, rye, and malted barley that was developed with a co-op of local farmers exclusively for Devils River’s Distillers Select Bourbon (and now for Texas Mash Bill Single Barrel as well). Aged 2+ years. The barrels are hand-selected by Founder and Master Distiller Mike Cameron based on taste, so each barrel is at least two years old, but each is also bottled when it is ready, which could be three years or more.
Devils River takes its name from the eponymous river in southwest Texas, running from Sutton County down to Del Rio. It is widely considered to be the most pristine and unspoiled river in Texas, known for its clear, spring-fed, turquoise-blue water and every proofed bottle of Devils River uses that water. But this “Ultra-Premium” Single Barrel does not. It enters the bottle undiluted, the way it comes out of the barrel. There is still history about this expression, as it is distilled a mere block away from the Alamo. You remember the Alamo … As with all single barrel selections, each barrel is going to taste similar but slightly different than every other. That’s the excitement of single barrel whiskey. We got our bottle in May this year. It was from a batch available only at the distillery – Barrel #213, bottle #6 of 155.
The nose has traditional bourbon notes: vanilla, caramel, cinnamon, oak, and a touch of ethanol; plus a few not always found in a Texas bourbon, such as black pepper, dark fruit (plum, raisin), and honey. On the tongue you get the heat of the high proof first, but it quickly fades into more flavors than you can count on first sip: black pepper, cinnamon, vanilla, caramel, honey, brown sugar, ripe pear and apple, oak, rye spice, and dark chocolate on the palate. Adding water softens the proof considerably and helps accentuate the fruitiness and sweetness.
That’s it! That’s the list.
We believe the selections we’ve made are dead solid perfect. You won’t go wrong trying any one of them. But if you also can’t believe we left your favorite whiskey off the list, go ahead and let us know about it. You can always try and prove it to us with a little impromptu tasting…
Meanwhile, we’re already getting started on next year’s list. We promise to do better.
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