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 (mid-30s Celsius) this week in Austin, but Bottas’ Coming In Hot Highball is a flawless fall drink.
Ingredients:
- 1.5 ounce WhistlePig PiggyBack Sauber Single Barrel Rye
- ¼ ounce Cocchi Americano (you can substitute Lillet Blanc, too)
- 4 dashes Bittermens Hellfire Habanero Shrub Bitters
- Soda water
- Lemon twist
Steps:
- Fill a Collins glass with ice, then add the whiskey first.
- Add the Cocchi Americano and bitters, then top with soda water
- Give it a quick stir with a long bar spoon, and garnish with a lemon twist
Texas Four-Step
Photo by: Sean Evans
COTA’s esses are a four-turn exchange (turns 3 through 6) linked to form a beautiful back-and-forth moment with plenty of flow. When cameras switch to the aerial view, watching drivers navigate this serpentine section gets the adrenaline flowing; they’re coming in at more than 200 mph, and have to maintain as much race pace as they can throughout. For this complex segment, we went with a riff on a Manhattan that uses a Texas whiskey and a vermouth substitute called Brovo Boomerang. “It’s a liquor with a lot of different flavors, sending your mouth between rhubarb, cherry, apricot, and walnut, mirroring the track’s corners,” says Vacheresse. For the Texas whiskey, try Balcones Rye for a spicier, chocolatey malt base, or Balcones Baby Blue for a sweeter corn base. Still Austin Bourbon or Rye also work well.
Ingredients:
- 2 ounces Texas whiskey
- 1 ounce Boomerang
- 2 dashes orange bitters
- 3 Maraschino cherries for garnish
Steps:
- Mix the Texas whiskey, Boomerang, and orange bitters in a shaker glass
- Stir until very cold, then pour into a coupe. Garnish with three cherries on a toothpick
Flat Spot
Photo by: Sean Evans
COTA’s turn 15 requires drivers to lean hard into the brakes and slow the car from triple-digit speeds to 60 mph (37 kph) or so before a hairpin. Occasionally those with lesser skills get caught out and lock up the wheels, flat-spotting the tires. “Tequila is big in Texas, and this drink is big on flavor,” says Vacheresse. “It’s got a surprising turn, just like the corner, by using Genepy — a French alpine herbal spirit that plays nicely with the classic pepper flavors of tequila.”
Ingredients:
- 1.5 ounces anejo or reposado tequila
- ½ ounce cinnamon syrup (instructions below)
- ¼ ounce Genepy
- ¼ ounce lemon juice
- Lemon wheel for garnish
Steps:
- Pour all ingredients into a shaker — shake until very cold
- Pour over ice into a rocks glass. Garnish with a lemon wheel
