Tasting notes

nose

toffee and warm caramel over charred oak and a wisp of smoke, with strawberry-rhubarb jam, orange marmalade and cocoa

palate

dense and candied; almond liqueur and coffee, sticky cinnamon buns, fudge and pecan brittle, with pomegranate molasses and dark brown sugar

finish

long; maple candy, black walnut and pecan pie hold on, then cinnamon heat and charred oak dry it out under a dusting of powdered sugar

Mash bill

74% white corn, 15% red winter wheat, 11% malted barley. Garrison Brothers makes a wheated bourbon on food-grade white corn, with wheat in place of the rye most bourbons carry to soften the grain's spice. The grain is milled fresh each day and cooked one batch at a time into a sweet mash, then fermented for four to five days with the distillery's own yeast strain.

Awards

• Platinum — ASCOT Awards 2026
• Double Gold — Proof Awards 2025
• Platinum — San Diego International Wine & Spirits Challenge 2024

Why it's craft

Garrison Brothers was founded in 2006 by Dan and Nancy Garrison in Hye, in the Texas Hill Country, and received the first permit to distill bourbon outside Kentucky and Tennessee. It mills, mashes, ferments and distills on copper pot stills, then ages and hand-bottles everything on the ranch. In Hill Country heat its barrels lose up to 40% a year to evaporation, against about 15% in Kentucky, and Balmorhea doubles down with a year in a second new barrel.