Garrison Brothers Texas Straight Bourbon (2016 Release)

I'm a Texan and so I want to try every Texas whisky I can get my hands on. That progresses slowly, here in Albuquerque, but recently to celebrate the conclusion of a long term personal project I got a bottle of Garrison Brothers Small Batch bourbon, out of Hye, TX. This is a 3 year old bourbon, with a mash bill of 74% corn, 15% wheat, and 11% barley. It's 94 proof, a fifth cost me $80.99 at Total Wine, and it's a deep copper color in the glass - almost the tone of a stained wood. 𝗡𝗢𝗦𝗘: On the nose I immediately smoke, reminding me of Jack Daniel's Single Barrel Proof, though not identical. Then there was a pleasantly sharp note I couldn't identify but seemed familiar from when I was young. There was some sort of spice, fresh wood - but not pine or anything you're likely to find where they're building a house, peanut shells, and then a note which made me think of balsa wood or sawdust or punk. This seemed very much like the wood note I got earlier, but not quite the same. Then there came a honey note, and finally - and strongly - some sort of nutty cereal. 𝗠𝗢𝗨𝗧𝗛𝗙𝗘𝗘𝗟: Thick and oily, far more so than I would've expected from a mere 94 proof. 𝗧𝗔𝗦𝗧𝗘: Right off the bat I got milk chocolate. Then a honey note came in, followed by puffed wheat, and finally a light black pepper taste rounded things off. I never get as much on the palate as I do on the nose, so this is actually not a step down; the palate matches the nose in quality, if not in variety of notes. 𝗙𝗜𝗡𝗜𝗦𝗛: The finish is the only part of the whisky that I find somewhat disappointing. It's short, and begins with puffed wheat which that quickly fades into sweet chocolate, before vanishing altogether. 𝗦𝗨𝗠𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗬: This is a good, unique whisky. It's as distinctively Texan, in its own way, as Balcones Texas Pot Still Bourbon. (As a side note, Garrison Brothers was the first legal 𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘣𝘰𝘯 distillery in Texas. Balcones Distilling was the first distillery, getting to market a year before Garrison Brothers, but Balcones didn't begin distilling bourbon until a few years later.) This juice isn't worth $81, but it is very good, and I'd consider $65-70 a fair price. At that price I'd buy it every time I could. 𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚: It's the seventh level (counting from the bottom) on my hick scale, Right Fine. That's the same as 4.375 stars, 87.5/100, or 8.75/10.

• nose - freshly vaccuumed office, foelds of barley in summer, •Taste - sweet barley notes? , young whiskey, starts pretty grainy and barley and ends sweet. Taste much more like an american single malt or blended than a bourbon.

Ginger bread, clean and pleasant nose. Dark fruit, plenty of baking spices. Longer lingering finish.

Smooth but not very complex. only get about 3 notes of flavor as I taste it.

Smooth taste. Very consistent. One of my favorites!!

Citrusy. Smooth finish. Lovely flavor.