This month, a young distillery is launching its first bourbon in Austin, Texas — and it has a message for Kentucky.

Fierce Whiskers released its first bourbon — a 3-year-old release distilled, aged and bottled at 98 proof in Austin — on May 10. It’s available now at retail stores across Texas with a suggested retail price of $46.99.

Fierce Whiskers began distilling its first batches of bourbon in September 2020. In 2021, it opened its tasting room in southeast Austin. Since then, it has launched multiple releases, including a wine-infused whiskey, two carbon-neutral rye whiskeys and a dual gin release.

Its first retail-available product, Fierce Whiskers Straight Texas Rye, debuted in June 2023.

“The success of the Rye was everything we hoped and gave us great confidence for the Bourbon,” founder and CEO Tri Vo. “Our team is exceedingly talented and willfully dedicated to the stubborn spirit needed to make whiskey in Texas, and that heart comes through in every spirit we release. We are so thrilled that after three years in the making, the bourbon is finally among those spirits.”

With an advertising campaign crafted by independent brand studio Butler, Fierce Whiskers made some brash, bold statements around Austin, which Butler showed off on its Instagram page.

“Kentucky, you still have the horse-thing,” a billboard reads. “The next great bourbon ain’t from Kentucky,” says a magazine ad.

In an Instagram post from the distillery showed off two other billboards, one reading “Kentucky, we’ve got the next round.”

“Kentucky, you had a good run,” says another.

Kentucky has a long, storied tradition of making great bourbon — so much so that many people are under the false impression that bourbon has to be made in Kentucky. While that’s not true, it is highly, highly unlikely that Kentucky will ever be dethroned as the king of America’s native spirit.

With that said, there’s plenty of great bourbon coming from all around the U.S. — including in Fierce Whiskers’ backyard. Still Austin is one of the best craft distilleries around.

Fierce Whiskers to Celebrate Launch With ‘Bourbon Bash’

Fierce Whiskers will celebrate its official launch from 4-8 p.m. Saturday with a “Bourbon Bash” at the distillery (5333 Fleming Ct, Austin, TX 78744). The event is free to the public and will feature food from include Uchiba (free onigiri to the first 150 guests), KG BBQ and small bites from Tare Austin, Castel Provisions, The Salty Donut, OMG Squee and Ululani’s, the latter of which will serve Hawaiian shaved ice, plus an option incorporating bourbon.

Bawi, the agua frescas brand, will provide refreshments including a Fierce Whiskers x Bawi cocktail. The Concord Botanical café and dispensary will park its school bus on the lawn for drink infusions.

Join the Whiskey Raiders Bottle of the Month Club, where you will receive hard-to-find bottles curated by Whiskey Raiders staff with a 90+ rating on whiskeyraiders.com plus live virtual tastings. Sign up here!

2024 LONGHORN ELITE INVITE

Friday Finals Livestream Video

As many Florida and Georgia names are repping at the 2024 Atlanta Classic, many more Texas names are going in on the weekend racing action two time zones over at the 2024 Longhorn Elite Invite in Austin, TX. Friday’s finals session sounded off with a set of four more women’s and men’s event finals, the 200 free, 200 back, 400 IM, and 100 fly.

Texas freshman Erin Gemmell of Nation’s Capital easily won the women’s 200 free at 1:57.51, ahead of Texas redshirt Jillian Cox (2:00.96). This marks a season best for Gemmell, following her 1:57.98 from the San Antonio Pro Swim Series. For Cox, her finals time was just off her season best of 2:00.22 from the Knoxville Pro Swim Series.

Gemmell now affirms herself as the 5th-fastest American in this event this season after being tied with Addison Sauickie. Gemmell owns a lifetime best of 1:55.90 from the 2023 World Championships.

2023-2024 US Rankings- Women’s 200 FR LCM

1. Katie Ledecky, 1:54.97
2. Anna Peplowski, 1:56.99
3. Paige Madden, 1:57.25
4. Simone Manuel, 1:57.37
5. Erin Gemmell, 1:57.51**
6. Addison Sauickie, 1:57.98

Four Texas Longhorn women finished 1-2-3-4 on the women’s side of the 100 fly. Kelly Pash (58.16) took the four-tenths win over Emma Sticklen (58.57) while Dakota Luther touched out Olivia Bray by 0.07s for third, 59.01 to 59.08.

Pash’s 58.16 eclipses her 2024 calendar year best of 58.34 from the Knoxville Pro Swim Series. She remains the 7th-fastest American in 2024 in this event. At the October 2023 Pan American Games, Pash won silver with a time of 57.85, which still ranks 7th this season.

Meanwhile, Sticklen’s 58.57 is a small drop from her 58.81 year best and keeps her ranked 12th in the nation this year. Luther’s 59.01 was a hair off her 2024 best time of 58.84. In the same way, Bray’s 59.01 was just off her US No.11-ranked 58.42 year best.

2024 US Rankings- Women’s 100 FL LCM

1. Torri Huske, 55.68
2. Gretchen Walsh, 56.14
3. Regan Smith, 56.36
4. Claire Curzan, 56.61
5. Alex Shackell, 57.22
6. Alex Walsh, 57.59
7. Kelly Pash, 58.16**
8. Josephine Fuller, 58.37

TXLA’s Shaine Casas took out another win in Austin, topping the men’s 100 fly at 51.48, splitting 23.80/27.68. Casas’ season best rests at 51.03 from the 2023 US Open, but has a 2024 calendar year best of 51.40 from the January Knoxville Pro Swim Series. With his 51.03 season best, Casas sits in second in the US only behind Caeleb Dressel this season. Casas put up his lifetime best of 50.40 back at the 2022 US Nationals.

SMU transfer Danny Kovac was spotted exactly a second behind, in second place, at 52.48. Kovac remains 10th-ranked in the nation this season, dropping 0.03s from his 52.51 from a SMU time trial last month. This marks Kovac’s fastest 100 fly since the 2021 US Olympic Trials, where he swam 51.61 to rank 4th in semi-finals before dropping to 8th in the final.

Pro Carson Foster, representing the Mason Manta Rays, won the men’s 200 free by exactly two seconds at 1:47.10. That’s just tenths off his season best time of 1:46.58 from the San Antonio Pro Swim Series last month, which ranks 4th in the nation for the 2023-2024 season. Foster does own a lifetime best of 1:45.57 from the 2022 US Team Trials.

Austin trainee Rex Maurer narrowly took second at 1:49.10, ahead of Texas’ Luke Hobson of Lakeridge (1:49.35). Maurer put up a new season best, dropping from his 1:49.98 at last month’s Fran Crippen Swim Meet of Champions in Mission Viejo. He owns a lifetime best of 1:47.63 from the 2023 US Nationals, which ranked 20th in the nation at the end of last season. Meanwhile, Hobson holds the top time in the nation this season at 1:45.26 from the outlandishly-scheduled February World Championships.

More Day 3 Event Winners

• Wisconsin commit Maggie Wanezek of Elmbrook handily took the women’s 200 back with a 2:11.99. Wanezek recently set her personal best of 2:10.33 at the March NCSA Spring Championships, ranking 12th in the nation this 2023-2024 season.
• Texas commit Cooper Lucas of Lakeside easily won the men’s 400 IM in 4:24.52, just off his 2024 year best of 4:23.54 from the Knoxville Pro Swim Series. Lucas owns a lifetime best of 4:18.76 from the September 2023 World Junior Championships, which puts him in 8th in the US this 2023-24 season.
• Texas’ Chris O’Connor easily won the men’s 200 back at 2:03.54, dropping just about a second from prelims (2:04.44). In February, O’Connor swam an unrested 2:12.28 at a TCU dual meet. He owns a lifetime best of 1:58.24 from 2023 US Nationals, which ranked 15th in the nation at the end of the 2022-23 season.
• After swimming the event for the first time since June 2022 in prelims, Texas’ Angie Coe dropped from a fresh 4:57.97 personal best to an Olympic Trials qualifying time of 4:48.76. She now adds this 400 IM cut to her 200 IM cut achieved in January.

AUSTIN, Texas — In issuing a full pardon to a former Army sergeant convicted of murder in the shooting death of an armed Black Lives Matter protester, Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott pushed a limited executive power to its absolute limit to get a desired outcome in a politically charged case. 

Abbott’s pardon this week of Daniel Perry, who killed Air Force veteran Garrett Foster at an Austin demonstration in 2020, satisfied prominent conservatives who had demanded Perry’s release and outraged prosecutors and the victim’s family. To critics, Abbott’s rush to wipe away the conviction also raised questions about how a governor might try to overturn a jury’s verdict in the future.

“He has declared that Texans who hold political views that are different from his and different from those in power can be killed in this state with impunity,” said Whitney Mitchell, Foster’s girlfriend who was with him at the protest when he was killed.

Texas law limits a governor’s power to issue pardons. It can be done only with a recommendation of the governor-appointed Board of Pardons and Paroles. Abbott, a three-term governor, has used his pardon authority sparingly over the past decade, typically granting only a handful every year for low-level offenses.

Perry’s case was far different from the seriousness of the crime to the politics involved.

Foster was killed amid the widespread demonstrations against police killings and racial injustice that followed the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white Minneapolis police officer. Perry’s conviction in 2023 prompted immediate calls from state and national conservatives for a pardon for the off-duty soldier who claimed self-defense.

Abbott’s response was just as quick. Even before Perry was sentenced, the governor criticized the jury that convicted him and demanded the parole board conduct a “swift” review of the case.

The governor also left no doubt about his expected result. “I look forward to approving (a pardon) as soon as it hits my desk,” Abbott posted on social media.

The public release of Perry’s social media history and text messages just days later did not change Abbott’s determination. Prosecutors used Perry’s own words — including comparing Black Lives Matter protests to animals at a zoo — to portray him as a racist who may commit violence again.

When trial Judge Clifford Brown sentenced Perry to 25 years in prison, he didn’t mention Abbott’s call for a pardon, but said from the bench that the verdict “deserves our honor and it deserves to be respected.”

Geoffrey Corn, chair of criminal law at the Texas Tech University Law School, called Abbott’s early push for a pardon, criticism of the jury and partisan attacks on the elected Democratic district attorney who oversaw the case a blow to the public’s confidence in the judicial system.

“It’s almost on the verge of catastrophic,” Corn said. “We’re telling people that when somebody is tried in a jurisdiction that is predominantly Democratic and you’re a Republican, the result can’t be valid? And vice versa?”

Perry, who is white, was stationed at Fort Hood, about 70 miles (110 kilometers) north of Austin, when the shooting happened. He was working as a ride-share driver and had just dropped off a customer when he turned onto a street filled with protesters. Foster, a 28-year-old white Air Force veteran, was legally carrying an AK-47 rifle.

Perry claimed he was trying to drive past the crowd and fired his pistol when Foster pointed a rifle at him. Witnesses testified they did not see Foster raise his weapon. Prosecutors argued that Perry could have driven away without shooting.

“Texas has one of the strongest ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws of self-defense that cannot be nullified by a jury or a progressive district attorney,” Abbott said in his pardon statement.

Yet David Kwok, director of the Criminal Justice Institute at the University of Houston Law Center, called jury nullification an important concept in justice.

“That is the power of the jury to push back against the force of government,” Kwok said.

Abbott had a long career in law before he was governor. He was an attorney and state district judge before he was appointed to the state Supreme Court, which decides civil cases. He then was elected state Attorney General and served three terms.

As governor, Abbott for years leaned into his legal and judicial experience when making political decisions, and was often criticized for being too deliberate and slow, said Cal Jillson, political science professor at Southern Methodist University.

“Abbott has changed a great deal over his 10 years,” as governor, Jillson said. “He has become much less judicial and much more political.”