Tasting notes

nose

Charred wood and a thread of tobacco smoke over raisin, dried fig and dark berries, with brown sugar, port wine and milk chocolate

palate

Ripe plum and mixed berries meet toasted coffee bean, chocolate and cinnamon, with leather, burnt brown butter and dry oak underneath

finish

Lingering; honey and brownie batter stay with raisin and leather, then smoked spice and dry oak take over

Mash bill

74% white corn, 15% red winter wheat, 11% malted barley. Guadalupe uses the distillery's only bourbon recipe, made from No. 1 food-grade white corn, soft red winter wheat and barley, all grown in Texas. Wheat takes the place of the rye most bourbons use, and the grain is milled fresh each day and cooked one batch at a time as a sweet mash.

Awards

• Double Gold — New York International Spirits Competition 2025
• Platinum — San Diego International Wine & Spirits Challenge 2025
• Double Platinum — ASCOT Awards 2025
• Platinum — SIP Awards 2025

Why it's craft

Guadalupe is Garrison Brothers' port-finished bourbon: four years in new oak, then two more in tawny port casks brought over from Portugal, put out once a year in a run of a few thousand bottles. The distillery, founded by Dan and Nancy Garrison in 2006 in the Hill Country town of Hye, cooks Texas-grown grain, distills it on its own copper pot stills and ages every barrel on the ranch. None of the whiskey is bought from another distiller.