![]() To put the category’s youth into perspective, a little over 900 miles northeast of Balcones Distilling lies Evan Williams, Kentucky’s first commercial whiskey distillery, which was founded in 1783. Only two years younger than Garrison Brothers, the 15-year-old Balcones, which was acquired by spirits giant Diageo in 2022, is something of an elder statesman of Texas whiskey. Texas’ first legal whiskey distillery, Garrison Brothers, was founded in 2006 and entered the market in 2010. Perhaps the biggest uncertainty surrounds Texas whiskey, a young industry dwarfed by older, larger compatriots - not unlike Waco next to Texas’ bigger cities. This sense of limbo stems from uncertainty - not only the uncertainty of Balcones being a relatively young whiskey brand or even the murkiness surrounding the American single malt category (the type of whisky Balcones specializes in making) in lieu of an official designation from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. But I don’t always know where it’s going.” We’re kind of always in a space that’s becoming, that’s informed by something that was. “And in hindsight, that seems really appropriate for how we approach doing what we do. “We’re sitting on the spot that’s not really where you come from, and it’s really necessarily even where you’re headed, but it’s the transitional space in between,” Balcones Distilling Head Distiller Jared Himstedt said during a dinner at the distillery. ![]() As Balcones Distilling Spirits Manager Gabe RiCharde, a geologist before his whiskey career, describes it, the line was caused by tectonic plates pulling away from one another. Balcones is an extensional fault line, which means it was caused by the stretching of the earth’s crust. Some vault doors from the original Texas Fireproof Storage Company, such as this one, remain in the building that is now Balcones’ distillery.īalcones the distillery took its name from Balcones the fault zone, and the distilling team relates to the geographical phenomenon on a metaphorical level.
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