Still Austin — The Den Pick · The Den Review Desk

Availability: You'll be shot if you post it there.

Oooooh boy. I've been waiting for this day. Still Austin doesn't need an introduction around here, so we're skipping the history lesson. This one is supposedly pure Distiller Master Class, with no Nose influence here. Although I've heard Nancy may have made a few comments about the pick.

I'll leave that one for @ihatehangovers to answer.

Let's dig in.

👀 Visual

Color: Russet
Legs: Thick & slow
Body: Medium

In the bottle, we're greeted by a very dark caramel. Once it hits the tasting glass, it shifts toward a deep amber. Give it a swirl and this thing absolutely coats the glass. Thick, oily legs slowly crawl down the sides. We're talking 0W racing oil here. After 60 seconds, the walls of the glass are still coated.

She's thicc.

👃 Nose

First dive: toffee. Mocha.

Give it about five minutes and suddenly: cherry soda. Pecans. Butterscotch. No pun intended, but… Texas praline, anyone? One final nosing before the first sip brings deep oak, Texas figs and maybe a little currant.

But here's the wild part: where the hell is the ethanol? At 120.8 proof, the alcohol presence on the nose is incredibly faint. It almost makes you wonder if somebody lied about the proof.

Wildly interesting.

👅 Palate

First splash brings: Texas blood orange. Cherry. Confectioner's sugar. Caramelized sugar. Then comes pecan pie and oak through the mid-palate.

Second splash? There you are. The proof finally says hello. But it isn't harsh. It's damn near perfect. I like a little heat and bite when I'm drinking higher-proof whiskey. I'm not afraid of proof. If you're going to put 120.8 on the label, I want the whiskey to remind me eventually.

And this does exactly that. It also coats everything it touches, which takes us straight into the finish.

🔥 Finish

Long. Cinnamon, caramelized sugar, fig and oak continue hanging around without ever developing that aggressive Texas heat you sometimes expect from younger Texas whiskey. Then comes another little pop of cherry and whipped cream. And suddenly it clicks: Cherry Dr Pepper vanilla float.

That's what this damn thing is.

💭 Thoughts

There's some lore behind this barrel. Still Austin has only recently allowed picks to creep beyond its more typical 116–118 proof range, and this barrel also came with an extremely short yield:

72 bottles.

When I write reviews, I try to go in as blind as possible.

What do I smell? - What do I taste? - How does it drink? - What does it remind me of?

And I'll admit something else:

I judge Den picks with prejudice.

I probably judge them harder than random bottles because I want the best whiskey possible coming from our team and the lucky few who get to participate in these picks. There's a list of rejected barrels that's far more expansive than the list of barrels that actually became Den picks.

So what do I walk away with here?

It's not bullshit. This is the best single-barrel Still Austin bourbon I've had. And I'm glad I skipped the "GTS Bradshaw." I'm genuinely happy to own this bottle. Actually, it's one of those bottles I immediately wish I had a backup of, because then maybe I'd be slightly more willing to share this one. So don't expect a sample. Don't expect me to casually bring it around. If I pour you some, it's because I actually think you deserve to experience it.

And here's the part that hurts: I've been talking massive amounts of shit to someone who was there and part of the pick team. I genuinely hoped this bottle would suck just so I could give him hell.

Instead, I gave it a 9.5.

I'm never going to hear the end of this.