Having been built in 2010, Austin, Texas’ Circuit of the Americas (COTA) racetrack isn’t even old enough to legally drink — but it’s already been home to a number of spectacular races. The track can accommodate 120,000 spectators, but when F1 first started racing at COTA, in 2012, ages before the Netflix “Drive to Survive” bump, tumbleweeds often outnumbered humans. Now, all the corners are brimming with rabid fans.
Because this 20-turn, 3.426-mile circuit design was designed by the same wizards behind Bahrain, Yas Marina, and the revamp of Hockenheimring and Fuji Speedway, the track has technical corners and ample high-speed sections, making for great viewing sections for F1 fans. It can be hard to choose only a few favorites, but we’ve concocted three boozy beverages with a Texan drawl, all inspired by COTA corners and crafted by Travel Bar Brooklyn’s co-owner and beverage director Mike Vacheresse.
Starting with one drink co-created by someone who’s not going to be drinking during the race, but knows his spirits well: Valtteri Bottas.
Coming In Hot Highball
Photo by: Sean Evans
“I like COTA a lot. It’s a fun track to drive,” Valtteri Bottas tells me over the phone. The Finnish driver for Sauber is on the line to chat about a collaboration between WhistlePig rye (his team’s sponsor) and his own gin brand, Oath, which resulted in a single barrel release of 6-year-old WhistlePig PiggyBack rye that’s been rested in Oath barrels (bottled at 100.77 proof, a nod to Bottas’ racing number).
“I’m getting into whiskey, trying to learn as much as I can,” Bottas says. “How much time I have to ‘learn’ is a question, given my busy season and schedule,” he laughs.
Ask Bottas for his favorite COTA corner and pair it with a cocktail he loves, and his answer is swift. “The first corner. It’s a huge uphill [133 feet in elevation] and then you’re into a hairpin, a bit of a blind corner,” Bottas says. “And I’d say it’s like a highball; tall corner, tall drink. And when you do a highball right, you never know what happens next.”
Building on that, Vacheresse whipped up a spicy highball that ratchets up the base flavors of WhistlePig x Oath with the help of habanero bitters. It’s a solid sipper, with hints of apple and cinnamon coming through from the Oath gin barrels, some rye spice from the whiskey, and a light burn from the bitters. Temperatures may be in the 90s Fahrenheit…
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